Of dungeons and demons
Of dungeons and demons
Dungeons have never been places I like to spend time. Even as a magician’s apprentice they made shivers run along my backbone. My Master removed undesirable spirits, devils, and remnants from many while we toiled together. I ignored most of the instructions he gave during those visits. I wish I had listened more because being imprisoned in one proved worse than I had imagined, and it looked as if dealing with the undesirable spirits was the only way out.Time no longer had meaning. The days and nights flowed together in interminable darkness broken once a day by the delivery of the slop they called food. I tried to count those deliveries at first, but I stopped at one-hundred. When my self-pity wore off I vowed to escape.The undesirable spirits arrive a long time after the daily meal. The sounds they make precede them to the cell door. Their wispy movements are hard to make out, but the clicking and gnashing of their teeth gives them away. When my Master and I performed our dungeon cleanups—I am reluctant to call them purification, they never worked that well—my job involved keeping the spirits away. I had been using that spell on these spirits, but they can build up immunity, so I had to find something else to use. Unfortunately, the only other item in my cell was the skeleton of a former guest. For the longest time, I refused to associate with my skeletal cellmate, but desperation can lead to bravado. We are now on speaking terms. I am sad about having to sacrifice him, but I explained the plan to him, and he never said no. Perhaps he will like looking alive once more.I have been saving a bit of gruel each day. It being the only resource I had to bring the rats close enough. Now with twenty-five dead rats I have enough to create my illusion. If making my cellmate look fleshed was all I wanted, a glamour spell was the other choice, but it would have dissipated at the first touch. I needed something that resembled flesh enough to make the spirit break the chains and the door. The glamour spell I reserved for use on my body. To make me look like my friend the skeleton.I crawled as far away from my cellmate as the chain that bound us both to the wall allowed. A clicking and gnashing sound drew closer. I closed my eyes and pulled up my wizard’s vision. A glamour spell cannot hide the doorways to the soul, so I kept my eyes closed. Skeletons should not have eyes. It ruins the illusion.With my wizard’s sight I saw the spirit through the door. Without my protection spell to stop it the thing sent tendrils into the cell. When my cellmate failed to react to the first tentative tendril touch, the spirit wasted no time. It pulled the body towards the door until the chain grew taut. I steeled my body for what was coming; unsure if my leg and my illusion were strong enough to hold up. With a suddenness that startled me the spirit shattered the door and wrenched my cellmate away. The rat’s body I had used to reinforce the ankle ripped apart. A thin tendril snaked out and captured the errant foot. The body parts disappeared through the open doorway. The door’s destruction proved noisy, as I hoped it would. As the clicking teeth sound vanished down the corridor, the sound of the guards reacting reached me. They appeared at the doorway in moments. My wizard’s vision showed them sticking their torches into the cell.“Spirit got him.” Eventuality coloured his tone. “How long did he last?”“I stopped checking last week when my number passed. I had one-fifty-eight, so adding five to that gives—?”“One-sixty-three,” the other guard answered. “That makes Ruke the winner. I’ll go tell the Sarge that the prisoner is dead, and then tell Ruke he won the raffle.”“What about me and the rest of our shift?”“You stay even if there is no one left to guard. Sarge will reassign us and aren’t I thankful for that.”“Not a fan of dungeon duty?” “Not a fan of dungeon spirits. They should hire a wizard to purify the place.”“That never works for long.” Their voices faded away.I gathered up the chain making as little noise as possible and followed them, my mind already planning my revenge on Miss Mousy and her wizard lover, but it would have to wait. The stairway out of the dungeon passed through the guard’s room, and with the one guard left behind my plan of escape that way had died. My only hope lay in the direction the spirit had taken.The corridor ended at another stairway that led downward into darkness. I crept along trying to keep the chain attached to my ankle from rattling. The stairs seemed long in the darkness, but I reached level ground again. Another corridor stretched out before me, lit by lanterns spaced about six or seven body lengths apart. They cast a red tinged glow. There were cells along this hallway, but unlike those above all the doors were missing. Pondering the mystery of the missing doors made me miss the clicking and gnashing sound until it was almost upon me. I backed along the corridor and ducked into the first doorway. No light penetrated here as I brushed my way along a wall to the first corner. I readied my protection spell. It was the only choice I had, but I would only use it if needed. Once the spirit knew I was here, my remaining life span would be a matter of days. I could hear the thing drawing closer to the door. It seemed to pause. Had it detected me? The sound started again. I could sense a quickening in its movements. Here it comes, I though. I raised my hand to fling forth my protection spell, but the sound moved away.“They do not enter here,” a disembodied voice announced. My head snapped towards the sound. Two points of blue ice regarded me from the blackness. Demon! One of the few lessons I remember was my Master’s discussion of demons. “The surest way to recognize a demon is the ice blue eyes, but if you are that close, you are dead,” he had said. I moved towards the doorway as a light oozed into existence.“The spirit is still out there. I can sense it. You should not hurry to leave.”The demon was tall, at least twice my normal height, and three times larger now as I crouched in abject fear. It stood against the wall on clawed feet. Muscular legs, muscular body, muscular neck, and a skull like head became clear as the light grew brighter. Then I saw the wings.They stretched out against the wall looking delicate, but large enough to carry its bulk. The light grew, pushing the shadows up towards the ceiling. It was then I noticed the spikes driven through the wings and into the wall. I looked back at the demons face. Pain, written in deep lines and furrows extended from the ice blue eyes back towards the bat like ears.“You will never bypass the spirits now. They know you are here, but they will not enter my cell. Your only chance is to help me escape. I will help you in return.”“You are a prisoner?”“What does it look like?” its voice rose. “Do you think I stand here through choice? Just my luck,” it grumbled. “The first visitor in ages, and he is an idiot. I hope you have an aptitude for magic at least, or we are both doomed.”“I have a little training although I admit not much.” We looked at each other. “I will help if I can.” The thought of letting the demon loose with me in the same space gave me pause. “I help free you, and you help me escape. Is that the deal?”“Yes, and I promise not to kill you when I am free. Is that what worries you?”Can you trust a demon? There are differing views on that subject. Most, my Master included, believed no. There are stories of wizards who have tried to bind demons. Some have succeeded, but I only remember those who failed. Stories about shared trust did not come to mind, but what are my options? I rose from my cowering squat, took a calming breath—perhaps my last—and stepped forward.“Those nails are out of my reach,” I stated.“Can you elevate yourself?”“Levitation was never one of my stronger spells. I managed a walk-on-air spell once, but my reserve of magic is too low to manage it now.”“Mine also is low, but your fear has given me a boost, just enough I believe.”I felt myself engulfed in a pressure that made breathing a conscious effort. I was lifted. Soon I floated close to a metal stake driven through one wing. A dark crust had formed where it punctured the skin. I reached out and brushed the offending spike. No tingling occurred, so I grasped the thing. “Can you lift me a little higher?”“How is that?”“Perfect. Now hold me steady. I will try to loosen it.”The spike was level with my belly button. I grasped it with both hands and tried to wiggle it up and down, back and forth, but it refused to move. “This isn’t working,” I told the demon. “I can’t move it because I float around. If I hang from it, my weight might shift it some. Take the floating spell away,” I said as I threw one leg over the spike. Hanging upside down, I wiggle and heave as best I could, but it proved unmoveable.“Can your hand reach up here to support me instead of using the floater spell?”“I cannot reach the nails. They are too high. I have tried.”“But if you can hold me up with a hand, I might get more traction.”He held a hand up and I stood on it. Then I could use my weight to push and pull at the spike. The weight of the chain I still wore helped. “It is moving, but I have to take a break,” I panted. “I haven’t eaten for a long time.”“Yes, you look rather thin and emaciated. Not much meat on your bones. You would be less than a filling snack.”The demon thinking of me as a snack made me giggle. I don’t understand why, but this demon was smart. He understood right away. “Sorry. I also have been without nourishment for a long period, but we have a deal.”With a lot of pushing and pulling and many rest stops I pulled one spikes out. My hands were raw by the time I finished. I must have fallen asleep on the next rest period. Karack, that was his name, let me sleep. I woke refreshed, but still hungry. Before we started on the second spike, Karack taught me a healing spell which I used on the freed wing and my raw hands. The exercise drained all my energy.“If we had one of those lights from the hallway, I could teach you how to use its energy to regenerate. You should retrieve one.” Karack suggested.“What about the spirits?”“I detect none right now. If you are quick and quiet, you will be back before one comes.”“Let me think about this,” I said. I was weak. One little healing spell and I was faint from exhaustion, if I want to live, getting out as soon as possible made sense. “All right,” I told Karack. “I’ll try.”I stood and wrapped my chain around my shoulder. “Karack, could you remove this chain? I would be quieter and faster without it.”“Not possible. It is dungeon steel, made in a dungeon for use in a dungeon. My magic will not work on it. The spikes are of the same steel otherwise I would have freed myself.”“Just a thought,” I mumbled. I finished tucking the chain around me and tried a couple steps to test for noise. It clinked, but if I limited my speed to a crawl, silence was possible. I took a quick glance out the doorway in both directions. Nothing was visible. I listened, but only heard the scurry of rats, so with great care I crept out and down the hallway.My movements were painful slow, but I reminded myself that being consumed by an undesirable would be worse. I reached the torch only to realize it was too high to grasp. Not by much. My fingers just grazed it when I stood as tall as possible. What to do?I gathered my energy, took a few deep breaths and jumped for the torch. I miscalculated and fell short. The noise unnerved me. Not far to go on that scale. Desperation and fear helped me make it the second time. With light in hand I turned back towards Karack’s cell. The sound of gnashing teeth drifted down the corridor from ahead and behind. I ran. A spirit came towards the cell door from the other direction. I screamed, hoping to scare it away. No luck, and worse luck, the thing reached the door before me, but a bolt of magic burst from the cell and sent the thing reeling. I ducked into the cell and collapsed.“Why did you scream at it?” Karack asked.“I tried to scare it, make it falter.”“You are not that frightening.”I searched for an answer, but nothing sprang to mind.“Thanks for blasting it,” I said.“My pleasure,” Karack told me. “Now bring the light here.” I struggled to my feet, my legs were shaky, but I managed. “Now, this is how you draw off the energy, pay close attention, going out for a second one is not something you want to do.”“You should be a motivational speaker,” I mumbled, but he was right, I focused my attention on his words. My Master would have been proud of me because I got it almost right away. Karack let me take most of the energy. He took a little.“It has been a long time since I ate also,” he told me. I tried to return his smile, but his long, pointed teeth distracted me.He held me up once again, and I worked on the second spike. I pulled and pushed at it for what seemed like forever. It might have wiggled a little. I had to take a break every few minutes.“Are you ready to start again?” Karack asked.“Yes. Hold me up. It has to be looser now. I will try pulling it straight out this time.”Placing one foot against the wall, I took hold with both hands, and yanked on the thing. It gave. I went. Everything went black.I started awake. I was an unconscious snack in a cell with a hungry demon. Not a situation paired with longevity, but I woke up. Karack was sitting on the floor beside me. I sat up and grabbed the back of my head. The movement did nothing for the pain and neither did my hands.“When you are ready we can leave,” Karack told me. “We should do it soon. The smell of your blood is hard to ignore.”“There you go with the motivational talk again,” I said as I struggled up. “Let’s go.”* * *One thing I am good at is detecting wards. There were several around the wizard’s keep we were trying to enter, but he had failed to refresh them for some time. Miss Mousy can distract you from things like that. I know, we had been together for over a year before she betrayed me and stole all our treasure. During my first few weeks in the dungeon I told myself the wizard made her do it, but I was wrong. It was her idea. Saving her life twice, finding riches, and finding someone to remove the mouse-face spell just wasn’t enough to make her love me. I never was the strong wizard of her dreams.The wards were the same as the last time I was here, the time they threw me in the dungeon; no new spells had been added. The door lock spell was the only one he was refreshing regularly, and I am too good a thief to let that one slow me down. With it bypassed and with what Karack had taught me the remaining wards were easy to defeat. I made a hole through them large enough for a demon to pass and he did. He was as eager for revenge as I. We found the bedroom on the top floor. It stunk of intimacy. I used oil on the door hinges and we slipped in. Karack cast a net spell which settled over the bed and snagged them both. I took time to open the entrance to the secret chamber, it had an excellent lock. Miss Mousy said nothing, but her glare said everything. With time the lock gave, and I pulled my treasure out. There was only one chest left, but I could survive on that, after all I was a wizard trained by a demon. I could always work.Karack and I had spent many hours discussing how we would take our revenge on Miss Mousy and the wizard who had imprisoned the both of us. Karack has a mean streak and a wild imagination. His ideas made me shudder just listening to them, but in time we came up with what we felt was a just action. When the secret chamber was empty Karack lifted the bed and moved it there. We had worked hard on the spell. I liked it. We left it hanging above the bed on a three minute timer while I resealed the door from our side. We were still packaging up the treasure when the spell fell. I could see it in my mind as it absorbed Karack’s net spell and then started the change. A cat and a mouse, in a sealed room, without food, I wondered how long their love would last.End
© Dave Skinner 2016
Dungeons have never been places I like to spend time. Even as a magician’s apprentice they made shivers run along my backbone. My Master removed undesirable spirits, devils, and remnants from many while we toiled together. I ignored most of the instructions he gave during those visits. I wish I had listened more because being imprisoned in one proved worse than I had imagined, and it looked as if dealing with the undesirable spirits was the only way out.Time no longer had meaning. The days and nights flowed together in interminable darkness broken once a day by the delivery of the slop they called food. I tried to count those deliveries at first, but I stopped at one-hundred. When my self-pity wore off I vowed to escape.The undesirable spirits arrive a long time after the daily meal. The sounds they make precede them to the cell door. Their wispy movements are hard to make out, but the clicking and gnashing of their teeth gives them away. When my Master and I performed our dungeon cleanups—I am reluctant to call them purification, they never worked that well—my job involved keeping the spirits away. I had been using that spell on these spirits, but they can build up immunity, so I had to find something else to use. Unfortunately, the only other item in my cell was the skeleton of a former guest. For the longest time, I refused to associate with my skeletal cellmate, but desperation can lead to bravado. We are now on speaking terms. I am sad about having to sacrifice him, but I explained the plan to him, and he never said no. Perhaps he will like looking alive once more.I have been saving a bit of gruel each day. It being the only resource I had to bring the rats close enough. Now with twenty-five dead rats I have enough to create my illusion. If making my cellmate look fleshed was all I wanted, a glamour spell was the other choice, but it would have dissipated at the first touch. I needed something that resembled flesh enough to make the spirit break the chains and the door. The glamour spell I reserved for use on my body. To make me look like my friend the skeleton.I crawled as far away from my cellmate as the chain that bound us both to the wall allowed. A clicking and gnashing sound drew closer. I closed my eyes and pulled up my wizard’s vision. A glamour spell cannot hide the doorways to the soul, so I kept my eyes closed. Skeletons should not have eyes. It ruins the illusion.With my wizard’s sight I saw the spirit through the door. Without my protection spell to stop it the thing sent tendrils into the cell. When my cellmate failed to react to the first tentative tendril touch, the spirit wasted no time. It pulled the body towards the door until the chain grew taut. I steeled my body for what was coming; unsure if my leg and my illusion were strong enough to hold up. With a suddenness that startled me the spirit shattered the door and wrenched my cellmate away. The rat’s body I had used to reinforce the ankle ripped apart. A thin tendril snaked out and captured the errant foot. The body parts disappeared through the open doorway. The door’s destruction proved noisy, as I hoped it would. As the clicking teeth sound vanished down the corridor, the sound of the guards reacting reached me. They appeared at the doorway in moments. My wizard’s vision showed them sticking their torches into the cell.“Spirit got him.” Eventuality coloured his tone. “How long did he last?”“I stopped checking last week when my number passed. I had one-fifty-eight, so adding five to that gives—?”“One-sixty-three,” the other guard answered. “That makes Ruke the winner. I’ll go tell the Sarge that the prisoner is dead, and then tell Ruke he won the raffle.”“What about me and the rest of our shift?”“You stay even if there is no one left to guard. Sarge will reassign us and aren’t I thankful for that.”“Not a fan of dungeon duty?” “Not a fan of dungeon spirits. They should hire a wizard to purify the place.”“That never works for long.” Their voices faded away.I gathered up the chain making as little noise as possible and followed them, my mind already planning my revenge on Miss Mousy and her wizard lover, but it would have to wait. The stairway out of the dungeon passed through the guard’s room, and with the one guard left behind my plan of escape that way had died. My only hope lay in the direction the spirit had taken.The corridor ended at another stairway that led downward into darkness. I crept along trying to keep the chain attached to my ankle from rattling. The stairs seemed long in the darkness, but I reached level ground again. Another corridor stretched out before me, lit by lanterns spaced about six or seven body lengths apart. They cast a red tinged glow. There were cells along this hallway, but unlike those above all the doors were missing. Pondering the mystery of the missing doors made me miss the clicking and gnashing sound until it was almost upon me. I backed along the corridor and ducked into the first doorway. No light penetrated here as I brushed my way along a wall to the first corner. I readied my protection spell. It was the only choice I had, but I would only use it if needed. Once the spirit knew I was here, my remaining life span would be a matter of days. I could hear the thing drawing closer to the door. It seemed to pause. Had it detected me? The sound started again. I could sense a quickening in its movements. Here it comes, I though. I raised my hand to fling forth my protection spell, but the sound moved away.“They do not enter here,” a disembodied voice announced. My head snapped towards the sound. Two points of blue ice regarded me from the blackness. Demon! One of the few lessons I remember was my Master’s discussion of demons. “The surest way to recognize a demon is the ice blue eyes, but if you are that close, you are dead,” he had said. I moved towards the doorway as a light oozed into existence.“The spirit is still out there. I can sense it. You should not hurry to leave.”The demon was tall, at least twice my normal height, and three times larger now as I crouched in abject fear. It stood against the wall on clawed feet. Muscular legs, muscular body, muscular neck, and a skull like head became clear as the light grew brighter. Then I saw the wings.They stretched out against the wall looking delicate, but large enough to carry its bulk. The light grew, pushing the shadows up towards the ceiling. It was then I noticed the spikes driven through the wings and into the wall. I looked back at the demons face. Pain, written in deep lines and furrows extended from the ice blue eyes back towards the bat like ears.“You will never bypass the spirits now. They know you are here, but they will not enter my cell. Your only chance is to help me escape. I will help you in return.”“You are a prisoner?”“What does it look like?” its voice rose. “Do you think I stand here through choice? Just my luck,” it grumbled. “The first visitor in ages, and he is an idiot. I hope you have an aptitude for magic at least, or we are both doomed.”“I have a little training although I admit not much.” We looked at each other. “I will help if I can.” The thought of letting the demon loose with me in the same space gave me pause. “I help free you, and you help me escape. Is that the deal?”“Yes, and I promise not to kill you when I am free. Is that what worries you?”Can you trust a demon? There are differing views on that subject. Most, my Master included, believed no. There are stories of wizards who have tried to bind demons. Some have succeeded, but I only remember those who failed. Stories about shared trust did not come to mind, but what are my options? I rose from my cowering squat, took a calming breath—perhaps my last—and stepped forward.“Those nails are out of my reach,” I stated.“Can you elevate yourself?”“Levitation was never one of my stronger spells. I managed a walk-on-air spell once, but my reserve of magic is too low to manage it now.”“Mine also is low, but your fear has given me a boost, just enough I believe.”I felt myself engulfed in a pressure that made breathing a conscious effort. I was lifted. Soon I floated close to a metal stake driven through one wing. A dark crust had formed where it punctured the skin. I reached out and brushed the offending spike. No tingling occurred, so I grasped the thing. “Can you lift me a little higher?”“How is that?”“Perfect. Now hold me steady. I will try to loosen it.”The spike was level with my belly button. I grasped it with both hands and tried to wiggle it up and down, back and forth, but it refused to move. “This isn’t working,” I told the demon. “I can’t move it because I float around. If I hang from it, my weight might shift it some. Take the floating spell away,” I said as I threw one leg over the spike. Hanging upside down, I wiggle and heave as best I could, but it proved unmoveable.“Can your hand reach up here to support me instead of using the floater spell?”“I cannot reach the nails. They are too high. I have tried.”“But if you can hold me up with a hand, I might get more traction.”He held a hand up and I stood on it. Then I could use my weight to push and pull at the spike. The weight of the chain I still wore helped. “It is moving, but I have to take a break,” I panted. “I haven’t eaten for a long time.”“Yes, you look rather thin and emaciated. Not much meat on your bones. You would be less than a filling snack.”The demon thinking of me as a snack made me giggle. I don’t understand why, but this demon was smart. He understood right away. “Sorry. I also have been without nourishment for a long period, but we have a deal.”With a lot of pushing and pulling and many rest stops I pulled one spikes out. My hands were raw by the time I finished. I must have fallen asleep on the next rest period. Karack, that was his name, let me sleep. I woke refreshed, but still hungry. Before we started on the second spike, Karack taught me a healing spell which I used on the freed wing and my raw hands. The exercise drained all my energy.“If we had one of those lights from the hallway, I could teach you how to use its energy to regenerate. You should retrieve one.” Karack suggested.“What about the spirits?”“I detect none right now. If you are quick and quiet, you will be back before one comes.”“Let me think about this,” I said. I was weak. One little healing spell and I was faint from exhaustion, if I want to live, getting out as soon as possible made sense. “All right,” I told Karack. “I’ll try.”I stood and wrapped my chain around my shoulder. “Karack, could you remove this chain? I would be quieter and faster without it.”“Not possible. It is dungeon steel, made in a dungeon for use in a dungeon. My magic will not work on it. The spikes are of the same steel otherwise I would have freed myself.”“Just a thought,” I mumbled. I finished tucking the chain around me and tried a couple steps to test for noise. It clinked, but if I limited my speed to a crawl, silence was possible. I took a quick glance out the doorway in both directions. Nothing was visible. I listened, but only heard the scurry of rats, so with great care I crept out and down the hallway.My movements were painful slow, but I reminded myself that being consumed by an undesirable would be worse. I reached the torch only to realize it was too high to grasp. Not by much. My fingers just grazed it when I stood as tall as possible. What to do?I gathered my energy, took a few deep breaths and jumped for the torch. I miscalculated and fell short. The noise unnerved me. Not far to go on that scale. Desperation and fear helped me make it the second time. With light in hand I turned back towards Karack’s cell. The sound of gnashing teeth drifted down the corridor from ahead and behind. I ran. A spirit came towards the cell door from the other direction. I screamed, hoping to scare it away. No luck, and worse luck, the thing reached the door before me, but a bolt of magic burst from the cell and sent the thing reeling. I ducked into the cell and collapsed.“Why did you scream at it?” Karack asked.“I tried to scare it, make it falter.”“You are not that frightening.”I searched for an answer, but nothing sprang to mind.“Thanks for blasting it,” I said.“My pleasure,” Karack told me. “Now bring the light here.” I struggled to my feet, my legs were shaky, but I managed. “Now, this is how you draw off the energy, pay close attention, going out for a second one is not something you want to do.”“You should be a motivational speaker,” I mumbled, but he was right, I focused my attention on his words. My Master would have been proud of me because I got it almost right away. Karack let me take most of the energy. He took a little.“It has been a long time since I ate also,” he told me. I tried to return his smile, but his long, pointed teeth distracted me.He held me up once again, and I worked on the second spike. I pulled and pushed at it for what seemed like forever. It might have wiggled a little. I had to take a break every few minutes.“Are you ready to start again?” Karack asked.“Yes. Hold me up. It has to be looser now. I will try pulling it straight out this time.”Placing one foot against the wall, I took hold with both hands, and yanked on the thing. It gave. I went. Everything went black.I started awake. I was an unconscious snack in a cell with a hungry demon. Not a situation paired with longevity, but I woke up. Karack was sitting on the floor beside me. I sat up and grabbed the back of my head. The movement did nothing for the pain and neither did my hands.“When you are ready we can leave,” Karack told me. “We should do it soon. The smell of your blood is hard to ignore.”“There you go with the motivational talk again,” I said as I struggled up. “Let’s go.”* * *One thing I am good at is detecting wards. There were several around the wizard’s keep we were trying to enter, but he had failed to refresh them for some time. Miss Mousy can distract you from things like that. I know, we had been together for over a year before she betrayed me and stole all our treasure. During my first few weeks in the dungeon I told myself the wizard made her do it, but I was wrong. It was her idea. Saving her life twice, finding riches, and finding someone to remove the mouse-face spell just wasn’t enough to make her love me. I never was the strong wizard of her dreams.The wards were the same as the last time I was here, the time they threw me in the dungeon; no new spells had been added. The door lock spell was the only one he was refreshing regularly, and I am too good a thief to let that one slow me down. With it bypassed and with what Karack had taught me the remaining wards were easy to defeat. I made a hole through them large enough for a demon to pass and he did. He was as eager for revenge as I. We found the bedroom on the top floor. It stunk of intimacy. I used oil on the door hinges and we slipped in. Karack cast a net spell which settled over the bed and snagged them both. I took time to open the entrance to the secret chamber, it had an excellent lock. Miss Mousy said nothing, but her glare said everything. With time the lock gave, and I pulled my treasure out. There was only one chest left, but I could survive on that, after all I was a wizard trained by a demon. I could always work.Karack and I had spent many hours discussing how we would take our revenge on Miss Mousy and the wizard who had imprisoned the both of us. Karack has a mean streak and a wild imagination. His ideas made me shudder just listening to them, but in time we came up with what we felt was a just action. When the secret chamber was empty Karack lifted the bed and moved it there. We had worked hard on the spell. I liked it. We left it hanging above the bed on a three minute timer while I resealed the door from our side. We were still packaging up the treasure when the spell fell. I could see it in my mind as it absorbed Karack’s net spell and then started the change. A cat and a mouse, in a sealed room, without food, I wondered how long their love would last.End
© Dave Skinner 2016
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