Introduction: There are many people in the universe of The Wizard and Spells R Us who are not very happy with what he’s done to them. One transformee decides to take steps necessary to eliminate The Wizard once and for all. She gathers a group of equally disgruntled victims of The Wizard’s magic, and they try to put together a plan. Will they succeed?

Paul tells his mother that her quest is futile. The intrepid four enter the cave, and soon discover the importance of each treasure. They also discover that their time in the cave is different than outside. Lois Papadopoulos comes to Sandra to tell her she’s out of the group. She tells her what happened to get her where she is. Sandra agrees that their venture is futile. Tom is selected as leader. Ivan is second in command.

This story is another addition to The Cynthia Chronicles, Volume III. Cynthia (Cindy) Brewer has graduated from medical school. Randi Lewis at age 18 is starting work on her Master of Science in Chemistry, and Charli Brewer is a freshman in pre-med at UConn. Bobbie Anderson is setting the golf world on fire having now won tournaments on the PGA in addition to her many victories on the LPGA. This story takes place several years before Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling. If you are not familiar with the stories that make up the Cynthia Chronicles, you might want to go back to the beginning with An Incremental Journey

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This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

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Cynthia and the Queen of the Knight
 

Chapter 12

Sandra was having a cup of coffee when Paul came into the kitchen to fix breakfast.

“We need to talk,” she said as she placed her cup on its saucer.

“Sure, Mom.”

“Are you still planning on carrying on with this project of yours?”

“Certainly, why wouldn’t I? It’s part of my high school curricula.”

“It’s nothing of the sort. That evil wizard is just using you to get at me.

“Hell is too good a place for him. He has caused me nothing but despair and agony, and his death is the only way to fix things. It would be only right that my son who he is trying to turn into my daughter would kill him. He would never get a chance to complete his evil agenda.

“The vengeance of hell boils in my heart.

“If you don’t try to kill him, then you are no longer my child.”

“Mom, I think you’re being a bit melodramatic. Of course I won’t try to kill him. You of all people should realize how futile this thing you’re trying to do is. I think The Wizard is trying to help you, not harm you.

“At any time, he could put a stop to what you and the others have been planning, and most of them have decided not to continue. I think a better solution would be to meet with him.

“Tom just drove up, so I’ll get breakfast on the way out there. I imagine we’ll be back late this afternoon. We won’t be able to call you from the cave, but we probably will call when we’re outside it.

“I love you, Mom. You mean so much to me, but you have to get rid of this hate. He didn’t steal your life. He gave you one – me.”

He kissed her tear streaked face and left.

“Where the hell did all this fog come from?” Pappy asked. There hadn’t been any fog until they turned off the main road; however, one could call it ‘pea soup’.

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Tom said. “Where we’re going there won’t be any fog.

“I think we’ll know for sure when we get to the spring house if everything is ready for us. He won’t let us go in if we’re not ready.

“Okay, there’s Mr. Temple’s car; so far, so good.”

Mr. Temple approached as Tom opened the trunk to get their packs out.

“Guys, I got the keys to the culvert from the Park Superintendent. Once you open it up, take the keys with you. I wouldn’t want anyone locking you in. Of course there won’t be any cell phone reception once you get in the cave. So you might as well leave your phones in your car.”

“Is there any problem if we take them with us? They can also serve as minicomputers?” Pappy asked.

“Probably not. Take them with you if you want. Who knows, you might need them.

“I noticed another car parked back there along the access road. No one else is authorized entrance into the cave today. It might just be a jogger or some bird watcher.

“Okay, you’re on your own.” Mr. Temple returned to his car and departed.

“He certainly didn’t make much of an attempt to make this sound like a school project, did he?” Paul said as the car disappeared into the fog.

“Not one bit,” Tom replied. “All right, it’s on to the spring house. Everything starts there.”

Previously, the sunlight coming through the ventilation ports at the roof line had allowed adequate visibility. The dense fog this time plus the early morning light made it very dark inside. Immediately in front of the door were a paper bag, an old lamp, and a bottle of water.

“Well, this is pretty much what I expected,” Tom said looking around. “Whoa, what do we have here?”

They looked to where Tom was pointing. Three little girls were standing there. It looked as if they were wearing long flowing dresses; however, Paul quickly realized they were wearing night gowns. They were three very pretty little girls. Two were blonde. One blonde had very curly hair. The other little blonde girl had her hair done in pigtails with pink ribbons holding them in place. The third girl had very dark hair. Had it been a bit lighter inside the building, they would have realized her hair was dark auburn.

“And who do we have here?” Ivan asked on top of what Tom had already said.

“Hi Tom, hi Paul, hi Pappy, hi Ivan, I’m Iris, this is Melanie” the little girl said pointing to the other blonde.

“And I’m Cleo,” the dark headed girl said. “The Wizard said we should give you these.”

Cleo handed Tom a long closed case. Iris handed Pappy a smaller squarish box with a handle coming out of one side.

“We have to go now. We had a sleep over last night, and the cartoons are coming on.”

And with that, the three little girls disappeared.

“Who in the world were they?” Pappy asked.

“I know,” Paul said. “Those were our former adversaries Irving Mefisto, Clyde Davis, and Melvin Douglas. So that’s what happened to them. I guess The Wizard got to them. They certainly seemed happy.”

“I think they really are,” Ivan said. “Somehow, I think that was what they really wanted all along.

“What did they give you?” Ivan asked.

Tom opened the leather case. “Oh my God!” Inside was a flute, and based on its weight it was made of solid gold.

“What do you have, Pappy?”

“I think it’s a music box. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

“I think you’ll know when the time’s right,” Paul said.

Tom opened his pack, and was able to slide the encased flute easily inside. Pappy was able to do the same with the small music box in his pack.

“I guess we’d better get going,” Tom said shouldering his pack. “We’ll need the light and keys. We’ll need this other stuff later on.”

The four explorers, not sure of what they’d find, headed down the creek that quickly disappeared through a crack in the limestone. Beyond in the dry creek bed was the sink hole with the locked grate they’d seen the week before.

“Everyone okay?” Tom said as he unlocked the grate. He and Pappy pulled it back. In the dim light allowed by the dense fog they could see what amounted to some boulders and limestone forming a rough stair leading downward into the dark abyss.

“From now on it’s hardhats and chin straps. I’m not sure if the lights on our hardhats will work or not. As I said, the only light mentioned in the versions Ivan and I’ve seen is this lamp. If our head lamps work, fine. If they don’t, we may have to rely on this ancient lamp. All right, it’s down we go. Turn on your lamps.”

They gathered at the bottom of what appeared to be a rock fall from above. A low passage lead to what Pappy said was the west. They would have to crawl for an undetermined distance. According to the range finder, it was about a hundred yards. Paul noted the distance on the CAD program. He also noted the altimeter readings Pappy got off his watch. It read the change in barometric pressure as they descended. It wasn’t that accurate, but it would have to do.

“Look at that,” Pappy said, “some jerk left an old bird cage. I wonder if he thought he’d be able to catch bats and put them in there.”

“Nope, that’s part of the game. We’ll need that in a few minutes,” Ivan said as he picked it up.

“What about this? Some jerk has scratched this nonsense into the limestone.”

In rough block letters was ‘Magic Word – XYZZY.’

“Nope, that’s part of the problem, too. That word will transport us back to the spring house, but it only works between here and there,” Ivan said. “We could have tried it back at the spring house; however, I needed to verify it here rather than take the chance. We’ll use it when the time is right.”

“So, what’s this old piece of pipe doing here?” Pappy asked.

“Take a closer look,” Tom said. “We’ll need that later, too.

“Ivan, what did you do with it?” Tom asked.

“I took it to the next area and dropped it there. I figured out what the problem was. I don’t think it would matter if we took it with us. We just need to put it down so he can’t see it.”

“Who’s he?” Pappy asked.

“We’ll see in a little while,” Tom said. “I really have no idea about distances in this place. We’ll know when we get there.”

They continued west, according to the compass, down a long sloping passageway that finally opened into a fairly large room. They’d been hearing some strange noises for quite a while, and now the source of the noise was in front of them.

“Oh my God, a Paradisaea apoda,” Pappy said. “Can we count that, Ivan?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t think this counts as an accidental,” Ivan said.

“Put the rod down where the bird can’t see it,” Tom said. “Then put the cage down near the bird.”

Pappy placed the cage near the bird, and not too surprisingly, the bird hopped into the cage. Pappy closed the cage door. Tom picked up the rod.

“Is the bird a treasure or something like that?” Pappy asked.

“No, it’s a tool. Depending on the scenario that’s been set up for us, we may need the bird more than once.

“Get the rod. We’ll need it later on. Let’s keep going in the only way we can go.”

Several hundred yards further on the relatively level passage ended in a small room with a pit at its center. Stairs led downward to an area they couldn’t see.

“Now I know this isn’t real,” Tom said as he tried to project his light downward. I want to try something. I’m going to turn off this lamp, and turn it back on. I’m talking about less than a second.

“Ready, lamp off.”

Immediately, all the lights went out.”

“Lamp On.” All the lights came back on.”

“Okay, we have enough light, but this lamp controls everything as far as light is concerned.”

“We’ll have to be very conservative as far as its use,” Ivan said. “In the computer game if you use too much time wandering around, the lamp will run out of power. You can buy batteries, but you use up part of the treasure. That’s why mapping this place out while we go is so important. We’re not going to get to ‘save game’ for a place to come back to.

“This is beginning to come back to me. I remember a lot of the tricks. What about you, Ivan?”

“Yeah, same here. Let’s get started.”

“I thought you said there wouldn’t be any fog down here,” Pappy said as they started down the stairs that looked as if they might have been there for five-hundred years.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ivan said. “It’s just special effects.”

“Now what do we do?” Pappy asked. “The fog seems to be getting even thicker.

“That’s because this is called the Hall of Mists,” Tom said as Paul entered the data into the tablet. I think we need to go south into that low passage. We have a lot of choices here. We don’t have to do things in any particular order, at least as far as this level, is concerned.”

So, they headed south. At least that was what Paul’s compass said. After fifty or sixty yards of dodging stalagmites they arrived at a low ceilinged room that had no apparent exit other than the way they came.

“Holy Shit!” exclaimed Pappy. “Look at the size of that gold nugget.”

“That’s treasure number one,” Tom said as Pappy picked it up.

An eerie voice filled the room. “You won’t get it up the stairs.”

Tom and Ivan had expected the words, but Paul and Pappy were obviously startled. However, there was more to it than that. Paul shook his head and sat on a nearby rock, and Ivan briefly leaned against the wall.

“You guys okay?” Pappy asked.

“I think so,” Paul said. “I think I’m just hungry. How long have we been down here anyway?”

“A little over four hours,” Tom said checking his watch. “Let’s eat lunch. I think we should go back to the Hall of Mists.”

The seemingly bottomless packs quickly produced some MREs and water.

“I gotta take a leak,” Pappy said. “Where am I going to do it?”

“How about over there,” Ivan said pointing to a pair of doors that certainly hadn’t been there before. One had a logo of a man, and the other a logo of a woman. Pappy quickly headed for the correct logo. Inside was a light switch that activated an exhaust fan. He washed his hands before returning to the others.

“I can’t believe they’d put a place like that down here.”

“They didn’t,” Paul said. “The Wizard put it there. Besides, it really isn’t there. I imagine that as soon as we leave this area, it will disappear; just like that trash can will after we’ve finished cleaning up.”

Ivan pulled Paul aside. “What happened to you back there when Pappy picked up the gold?”

“I had a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then it went away.”

“And?”

“My testicles are gone. It’s going to happen isn’t it?”

“I think so. He did the same thing to me, and that’s just what we can see. Who knows what else is happening. Obviously, our changes are tied to the treasures. We have a long way to go.

“Do we tell them?” Paul asked nodding towards Tom and Pappy.

“They’ll find out soon enough.

“You know Tom loves you. He’s hoping for this almost as much as you are.”

“What about you and Pappy?”

“I like Pappy; I like him a lot; however, he has a lot of growing up to do. I’m going to have to find out how trainable he is before I commit myself to him. I think there is hope, though.”

Chapter 13

Sandra hadn’t heard from Myrtle, and felt she’d just better leave her to her own resources. She’d finished breakfast a little while before and was now just staring at the wall, and fiddling with a piece of toast crust. She used it to wipe some remnants of jam off the butter knife before slowly chewing it up.

Her cell phone vibrated across the table. “Hi Lois, what’s up?”

“We need to talk. May I come over?”

“Certainly, I’ll brew a fresh pot of coffee.”

Five minutes later Lois Papadopoulos was at the back door.

“Sandy, I’m out. It’s over. This is totally futile. We’re in way over our heads.”

“I think I’m beginning to realize that,” Sandra said taking a sip of her too hot coffee before rapidly putting the cup back on her saucer. “What are we going to do?”

“I think we need to tell The Wizard that we’re giving up.”

“He probably already knows,” Sandra replied. “What are we going to do about Myrtle and the other two? I think nothing would please Myrtle more than to take him out. I think Agnes and Glynnis feel the same way. They’re consumed with getting their manhood back.”

“I think The Wizard can take care of himself. I don’t know if he can nullify Myrtle’s sniper rifle, though.

“Ivan left me a rather long letter this morning. It explained many things, some of which I expected. Ivan said he is transgender; that he is mentally a girl. I think I’ve known that for a while. I wish he’d brought it up to me before. He’s desperately hoping that the Wizard will change him. I’m hoping he will, too. Maybe my daughter will be able to have children. Something that I will never be able to do.”

“What did he do to you, Lois?”

“Nothing I didn’t deserve.

“I was an alcoholic; something I wouldn’t admit to myself. I was coming home from a party and I ran a stop sign. I killed a little girl and badly injured the members of her family. The Wizard was nearby, but since the little girl was dead, he couldn’t do anything for her. He switched our bodies. I became a badly injured little girl, and she became my dead self. I probably would have killed myself one way or another anyway. So in a way, he did me a favor. I just didn’t realize it.

“My body was so badly injured that they had to take my ovaries and uterus. I’ve been on HRT since I was nine.”

“Ivan’s adopted, obviously,” Sandra said while trying to keep the tears back.

“I told him as soon as he was able understand. I was a literature major, and started writing while I was still in college. I sold my first book before I graduated. I discovered I very much wanted to be a parent, and I think that was his major punishment for me. It’s what would have happened to that little girl had she lived.

“I adopted Ivan when I was twenty-two. He’s as Greek as I am. It’s easy sometimes even for a single parent to adopt a child from an impoverished country. So, here I am, a single mother with no hope of marriage, with a son who desperately wants to be a woman, and I am not going to do anything to prevent it. I hope he knows that.”

“I wonder if that’s a coincidence. Paul told me he’s transgender. I’m such a great mother that I’d never noticed he was taking hormone blockers for the last three years. I did some reading that indicates he could still go through male puberty if the blockers were stopped. He gave me his supply of finasteride, but I don’t think he’s going to go back. I made an appointment for him to see my doctor. We’ll have to see what he says.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever see your son again. I’d be willing to bet we’ll both have beautiful daughters by the time this is over, and he won’t be doing it to punish us. Our punishment has been over for a long time.

“Where to leader?” Paul asked Tom.

“I didn’t know I was the leader. I don’t recall that being picked as leader of this nefarious group.”

“I think you were picked by default. De fault no one else wants the job.”

“If that’s the case, I want Ivan as a second in command. He knows this cave as well as I do.

“If that’s the way it is, we need to take the bird with us down to the next level. We have quite a bit more treasure to find.”

After what must have been more than a hundred steps, they arrived to what Tom called The Hall of the Mountain King. Very faintly they could hear what sounded like Edvard Grieg’s Pier Gynt Suite being played in the background. That was the good part. Across the way there was a huge green snake slowly making its way in their direction.

“That’s the biggest viper I’ve ever seen,” Pappy exclaimed. “It has to be venomous.”

“Put the bird cage down,” Ivan said.

Paul set the cage down and opened the door.

“Right,” Pappy said, “that little ol’ Bird of Paradise is going to kill that big snake.”

“Watch,” Tom said.

Like a shot the bird flew straight at the snake, attacking its eyes. The snake became very confused looking this way and that before giving a very loud hiss and disappearing down a hole in the floor. The bird strutted proudly across the floor, hopped onto its perch in the cage and began to preen its feathers.

“We may or may not need the bird again depending on what version we’re playing. We can leave the bird here. It will be fine. Let’s go south. There will be something there for us.”

A small entrance led them to a room-like chamber where a rather impressive assortment of jewelry was sitting on a pedestal. Pappy immediately picked the jewelry up and placed it in a pocket on the side of his pack. Paul winced as another strange sensation overtook him. Ivan seemed to steady himself against the wall of the passage leading back to The Hall of the Mountain King, a name they had decided on. When they got there, the bird was gleefully singing a few bars from Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

“Ho, ho, me harties, I’ll just take that gold nugget and jewelry and put them in me chest, thank you very much.” Addressing them was a man in a ridiculous pirate costume.

“You may have them, sir,” Tom said.

“Pappy, give the nice pirate the gold and jewelry.”

“Thank ye very much. I’ll be off now,” the pirate exclaimed as he rapidly disappeared down the passage.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ivan said. “We’ll probably get everything back later on. Hopefully, we won’t have to deal with him again. That could screw things up for us.”

From there it was west to another chamber where they found a pile of gold coins. Tom placed them in his pack. The feeling that hit Paul was almost orgasmic.

“Are you okay?” Tom asked.

“I’m fine,” Paul responded. “In case you haven’t noticed, Ivan and I are changing. Every time we find something we go a bit further in the right direction. I’ll not go into details right now. What do you think?”

“I think it’s wonderful. It’s just that much more important that we complete this project.” Turning to the other two, “We need to take that passage to the north. There’s another treasure there and another way out.

“Are you alright, Ivan?”

“Getting better by the minute.”

Pappy seemed a little puzzled by that last remark.

The North passage seemed to wander a bit; however, the general direction according to the map they were making was north. Around a bit of a corner they came upon a pair of spectacular sterling silver candelabra made by Tiffany. At least that was what the placard placed on the table in front of them said.

The set was pretty massive, and when Tom picked them up, both Paul and Ivan gasped. For the first time, Pappy realized something was going on that was pretty serious.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked Ivan.

“I’m fine. It’s just that every time we find a treasure Paul and I change a bit more into women. I’m not going to show you the changes – yet. You’re just going to have to take my word for it. I’ll just say they are very definitive.

After several hundred yards of dodging rock falls, stalagmites and stalactites, they came to a room with a large Y2 carved into one wall.

“This is our exit,” Ivan said. “Sometimes, a voice will say a magic word. We won’t say it yet. I want to verify with Tom that we agree on the word.” Ivan wrote a word on his pad and showed it to Tom.

“It doesn’t have an ‘O’ in it; just a ‘U’.”

“I think you’re right,” Ivan responded.

“Everyone grab hands. We’ll be coming right back to this spot in a little while

“Plugh”

They were back in the well house.

“Turn off your lights, Tom said as he turned off the lamp.

A rather large table was located to one side, and they place their treasured there.

“What if someone steals them?” Pappy asked.

“What the fuck,” Ivan suddenly shouted. He was standing at the door looking across the foggy valley. “How long have we been down there,” he asked.

“A little over nine hours; we went in at 9:00 AM. It’s 6:15 now,” Pappy answered.

“Take a look at your cell phones. It’s only 9:15 in the morning according to my cell phone. According to my phone we’ve been down there for only 15 minutes. It’s still foggy out there, and from those faint shadows I know it’s still morning. My wrist watch says what Pappy’s does.”

“A period of time was never specified in the game,” Tom said. “The life of the lamp seems to be governed by how many bad turns we make: how much wasted motion we do. I think we’ve been very efficient so far. The game never specified how long it would take to finish it. Based on what Ivan and I know, it could take us as long as five days. I think the intent is for us to stick it out until the end. I suspect in real time that might be until sometime this afternoon.”

“That’s why we have so much food and water. We’re going to be down there for quite a while, and I guess we’d better get with it. We’ll need that bag of food and that water bottle.

“Grab hands. Plugh. Turn on light.”

They were back at Y-2.

“Okay ladies, this is where we take care of that son-of-a-bitch. I have a clean shot at just about every spot down there except inside that building. I was back in the woods when those kids showed up this morning. That teacher of theirs gave them some stuff. They messed around in that building before they followed that creek. They opened up a grate over a hole down there, and they disappeared down there.

“I just got this feeling that everyone’s going to show up here, and I have just what will do it.”

“And what’s that?” Agnes asked.

“I checked out that building a while ago. I found this,” Myrtle said holding up a cell phone. “I’ll just send a text message saying they’re in trouble in the cave. I’ll bet everyone will come running, including that wizard.

“Pappy, where’s your phone? “Weren’t you carrying it in your back pocket?” Tom asked.

“Shit, I left it on the table. It should be there when we make the next drop. At least my battery won’t be as low as yours. There really isn’t much we can do with it while we’re down here.”

“You’re probably right. We need to go back the way we came back to The Hall of the Mountain King. We should probably spend the night there.”

Their packs revealed several surprises, Among them were sleeping bags, air mattresses, a catalytic propane stove with fuel, bottled water, changes in underwear, a bath towel, soap, tooth brushes and toothpaste, dental floss, and many other things. Much to their surprise, well maybe not, a pair of restrooms appeared at the far wall.

“I definitely think the intent is for us to stay here for the night,” Tom said.

“But what about the lamp,” Pappy asked. “Shouldn’t we turn them off?”

“That would not be a good idea,” Ivan replied. “Because we haven’t violated the usage rules for the lamps, we haven’t been warned. If the lamps are off for too long two bad things can happen. We could be eaten by a grue, or we could fall into a bottomless pit. With either of those the game is over, and we’re dead. No, the intention is for us to spend the night or nights down here. It’s our making mistakes that might be the end of us, and I don’t think he wants that to happen. We just have to be smart.”

“Ivan, there’s a shower in the rest room,” Paul said. “I intend to use it later on.”

“Right, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

The adventure in the cave begins. Fortunately, Ivan (how long will that name last?) and Tom are remembering much of the cave from their previous experiences with the game. Ivan and Paul are changing with each treasure the group finds. Now they know how critical it is that they finish the ‘game’; however, it’s much more than a game. Sandra Knight realizes who Bob Temple is.