Winston took another look at the damp, tattered remains of Cage's fairy map that had led them to this underground lake. Much of the ink had run after being soaked, rendering most of the map illegible. He furrowed his brow, trying to recall the key details from memory.
"Me pretty share et menchuned a song party... Tuh trigger whatever treasure es down 'ere?"
Joe
.
"You mean we're going to go blundering off half-cocked into who knows what just based on your addled recollection?"
"Yup, mar ar less!"
The diri spirit rolled his eyes as he considered what he remembered himself of the riddles.
"I think you're right. There was a line about if our 'song party rules' then some prize would rise up."
"Grand!"
"Den me suppose we'd betta get singin'!"
He took a deep breath, preparing to bellow out a rousing tune. Joe winced, covering his non-existent ears.
"Winston, wait! Let's, uh, try to keep it subtle at first, yeah? Don't want to cause another cave-in."
The ferret looked a bit deflated but reluctantly nodded nonetheless.
"Yuh prabably right, mun. Let's start aff easy den, jost tuh get de 'magic' flowin'."
He began to hum a jaunty little tune, clicking his fingers in time. After a few bars, Joe cautiously joined in, harmonizing off-key in his ethereal voice. Mrs. Mistoffelees the duck looked on bemusedly.
For a while, nothing happened, until the ferret realised that two doth not a party make and with a little focus, he channeled his Song Forged gifted ability to sing with the voice of a harmonised ferret quartet.
"...wid a chirp and a spring, we all started tuh sing,
And wid a little bit af luck we might see the special ting!"
And wid a little bit af luck we might see the special ting!"
As their crime against music continued, Joe was happy they were the only people able to hear it, but Winston seemed delighted. As the music grew in volume, he detected a faint glow emanating from beneath the dark waters of the underground lake. He gestured for the others to be quiet, continuing some wordless humming.
The glow brightened, small pinpricks at first but growing stronger.
"Jost like en de verse!"
"Me reckan de treasha most be under de wata!"
Joe looked apprehensive.
"Of course it is. Because why would anything be simple..."
Undeterred, Winston began removing his clothes down to his bare fur.
"Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained! I'm going to take a look."
He considered the the water-breathing enchantment on his gauntlet, licking his lips.
"No salt... Darn... De wata es nat salt wata soh my gauntlet es nat goin' tuh work."
"Oh well. Too bad. Home it is then."
With a shrug, the ferret continued to venture in to take an experimental look under the water.
"Me gat tuh get down dere an' see what's makin' dat light! Dis is too brilliant tuh pass up!"
"Winston, wait!"
"You can't just dive into that lake, it could be hundreds of feet deep! You'd drown for certain!"
"No me won't. I CAN swim yuh know."
"Look, you have no idea what's down there and you're swimming has thus far exclusively included the ability to brieth under water or nearly drowning with no ground inbetween."
The ferret paused, ears drooping slightly as the truth of Joe's words struck him. As nimble and sure-footed as he was on land, he was only just an adiqute swimmer at best and not capable of deep diving.
"Well... drat,"
"Me suppose yuh right. Me simply most investigate doh! Per'aps me cun make sometin' wid a Wind well? Tuh make air onda de wata?"
"Eh? What's dat, me fine feaddad friend?"
"Yuh 'ungry?"
"Yuh 'ave some ideas on 'ow me might explore de depths?"
More raucous quacking was the response, and Winston peered at Joe as if for translation. The spirit merely shrugged, as mystified as his companion as the duckess waddled over to the shore, splashing up to the ferret, settling in the shallows of the lake before him and waited expectantly.
"Joe, meh do believe our overly large friend 'ere es affering tuh ferry me about an dese waters! 'ow very clever an' gracious af yuh!"
Undeterred, he hopped up onto her broad back and settled as best he could upon the... flying mount.
"Oh no, absolutely not,"
"Winston, I simply cannot allow you to dive into that lake on the back of a duck, no matter how enormous. It's far too dangerous!"
But Mrs Mistoffelees, not to mention the ferret, paid the ethereal guardian no heed, waddling right into the shallows until the waters began lapping at Winston's ankles. The ferret held on tight as she ventured deeper, her bulk slowly becoming more buoyant as her weight was dispersed by the water and swayed from side to side.
"Don't worry Joe, Mre Mistoffelees knows wat she's doin'!"
"Just tink, two intrepid adventurers aff tuh uncover de secrets af dis mysterious underwater glow! Aren't yuh de least bit curious?"
But if Joe had any further misgivings, they were drowned out as Mrs. Mistoffelees took the plunge, submerging entirely beneath the dark surface in one mighty push of her webbed feet.
Winston had only a moment to take one final gulp of air before he was underwater, clinging tightly to the duck's broad back as she began powerfully kicking and paddling downwards. The ferret opened his eyes under the water's surface, relieved to find that he'd managed to hold on. Remembering how Vega and Kisaik had directed their mounts with raigns, it wa all he could do to hold on while the duck took him where-ever it was it was going.
The bluish-green glow emanated from somewhere further below, and he could make out the vague outline of rock walls and structures as they descended into the flooded caverns. His ears began to ack as they descended and he focused on holding on as they shot towards an opening.
After what felt like far too long of steady kicking, Mrs Mistoffelees broke through into an air-pocket, some sort of domed underground ruin. Winston greedily gulped down deep lungfuls of air while the duck paddled over to a crumbling stone ledge and settled beside it.
As the ferret caught his breath, he could finally take in the full scope of their surroundings. They appeared to be in some sort of half-flooded complex, carvings and facades crafted in an elegant, flowing style quite unlike any architecture he'd seen before. The ethereal blue-green glow seemed to come from clustered patches of moss embedded in the rockface at various points.
"Cage's fairy maps really know 'ow tuh send a fellow an de journey af a lifetime,"
"Wherever or whatever dis place once was, et must be ancient... an in serious need af a maintenance agreement."
He crept forward, mindful of broken tiles and columns from rooms and hallways now partially reclaimed by the water.
Joe zipped in through the underwater entrance, looking relieved to find them both unharmed in the air-filled chamber.
"Winston, are you alright?"
"Never better, me friend!"
"Look at dis place, mun! Dis place es... es... well me don't rightly know wat et es, bot et's incredible!"
He pointed out some of the carvings and crumbling statuary he could make out by the soft glow-light.
"We need a lital mar light dough. Me really shud add some kinda torch tuh dis ting."
retrieve his Glowstone
.Holding it aloft, he channeled just a little energy into it, causing it to illuminate the chamber more clearly and revealing something ahead of them in the gloom beyond the fungal glow...
"Is dat a collapsed bookshelf?"
"Yeah boo..."
"Oh well."
"Let's see wat else dere es 'ere."
With that he began rummaging around in the remains of the room, digging up anything that looked interesting and discarding everything else. It was some time before he spotted it, but as he gradually investigated piles of dead books,
Joe sensed something
radiating magic. "Hang on, there's something over here..."
Winston's ears pricked up and he scamperred over to the spirit.
"Wat es et..? Es et magical?"
"Yeah, something just under this lot."
With eager hands he began to remove layers of rotted books and dust. Taking his time and suppressing his urge to dig with gay abandon, lest he find something dangerous, the cover of a book slowly became visible.
It was small, some kind of journal, but it looked like it was nearly perfectly preserved with it's pages and bindings all in tact.
"OOOooooooohhhhh... A magic BOOK?!"
Continued here >>>
