by Saless
Chapter 27

"What's that?" Sarah asked worriedly. A large creature was blocking the entrance to the castle. It appeared to be asleep. Mike shrugged and approached it. He looked for a way around it, but found that it just filled the archway.

"If it was just a little smaller we could probably squeeze around it." Mike grumbled as he returned to his friends. "I don't know how we're going to get around this one."

"Maybe one of us could wake it up and lead it away?" Jill suggested uncertainly.

"No way, no splitting up!" Sarah replied vehemently.

"Maybe we should just talk to it?" Jill said. "It's unlikely to move if it's job is to block our path, so it probably won't attack us."

"So long as we keep our distance, anyway." Mike added. He looked to Sarah but she just shrugged. "Okay, I'll wake it up."

Mike stepped closer and tried making noise to wake it, but that didn't work. Finally he shook it and it started to stir. Mike jumped back and waited while it stood up and looked down on them. "What do you want?" it asked ominously.

"Uh, we were just wondering if you would let us by? Please?" Mike asked cautiously.

"No. I am bound here until my service is completed. I will not let you by." It replied.

"What was your question, if you don't mind me asking?" Jill inquired.

"I don't mind. My question was where I could find a female of my kind." It replied.

"What was his answer?" Jill asked.

"He said if I guarded this door a female of my kind would appear." He said.

Jill smiled wryly, "Sarah, I think that's your cue."

Sarah looked at Jill in confusion. Jill mimed slapping something and Sarah realized what Jill was suggesting. With an audible gulp she approached the creature. He watched her curiously, obviously unafraid of her. Once she was within reach she slapped its leg. Instantly it was smaller and more lightly built than it had been.

"What have you done to me?!" she demanded.

"Magician Humphrey told you a female of your kind would appear, right? Here you are!" Jill replied triumphantly.

Mike and Sarah groaned, fearing the creature would attack them. Instead it laughed! "Here I am, indeed!" it agreed. "Thanks to you my species is saved! You may pass." With that the creature stepped out of the archway and crossed the drawbridge, disappearing into the forest.

"What just happened?" asked Mike confusedly.

"That was the second challenge. There are always three. The first was opening the drawbridge, the second was getting that creature to move. His service would last until a female of his kind appeared, so we made a female of his kind appear. Thus ending his service so he could leave, thereby leaving the entrance open for us!" Jill replied happily.

"Is that the way things normally happen around here?" Sarah asked doubtfully.

Jill shrugged, "A lot of the time, yeah. Sometimes it's more complicated. Come on, lets go inside!"

Mike shook his head at the weirdness of their situation, Sarah just sighed resignedly. Both followed Jill into the castle.

The entrance led into a passage that slowly dwindled in size until they were walking single file. After several minutes of walking the passage suddenly opened out into a huge room. The ceiling was lost in the mists filling the room, making it seem like it was open to the sky. A portcullis clanged shut behind them, making Jill jump. "What was that?!"

Mike glanced behind them and saw the barrier blocking their escape. "A portcullis. We can't go back the way we came. You two stay close to me." He said. Sarah and Jill crowded in close behind him. They slowly made their way across the room. The mist slowly cleared as they walked, until they found themselves in the center of an arena. There were several other portcullis' blocking other passages to their level of the arena, and several levels of seating above them. There was a man sitting in what looked like a throne watching them.

"Greetings, gladiators!" he boomed. His voice was unnaturally loud and shook the walls. "Today you face one of the most fearsome creatures of the land! Fight well!" With that one of the largest portcullis' opened. Smoke billowed out of it, followed by the sinuous body of a large dragon!

"Now what?" Mike asked, hoping Jill had an answer for this one.

"I…don't know. There has to be a way out, but I don't have any idea what it is!" she said, beginning to panic. Sarah wasn't far behind her in that.

Mike sighed, "Okay, you two stay back and look for a way out. I'll try to distract the dragon."

"Mike?" Jill said worriedly, unable to form a more cohesive protest.

"Hey, maybe I'll turn into a dragon again!" Mike said with a weak chuckle, hoping to calm Jill.

Jill and Sarah back away from Mike reluctantly. He stepped forward, watching the dragon carefully. It approached confidently, secure in the knowledge that these puny humans were no threat to it. Jill and Sarah moved along the edge of the arena, hoping to find a way out before Mike got fricasseed or chomped. The dragon saw them and turned towards Sarah. "No you don't!" Mike yelled, running at the dragon.

The dragon negligently knocked Mike away with its tail. Mike scrambled to his feet and ran to get between the dragon and Sarah. The dragon snorted, smoke billowing out from its nostrils. "Very well, I'll eat you first!" it growled, lunging at Mike. Mike felt pain throughout his entire body and knew the dragon was burning him alive, or eating him. But then the pain passed as quickly as it began. Confused, he opened his eyes. Strangely, the dragon seemed much smaller. Stranger still, Mike couldn't see himself at all! Am I dead? he thought.

The dragon was also confused by Mike vanishing, but disregarded that and lunged at Sarah. She screamed in fright, curling up into a ball against the arena wall. But the dragon stopped suddenly, as if it'd hit an invisible wall.

Mike looked down and saw the dragon bash against some unseen obstacle, but felt the dragon crash into his legs. He tentatively kicked out with his right foot. He saw nothing of himself, but felt his foot connect with the dragon's skull. What he saw was the dragon suddenly lifted off the ground by some unseen force and sent flying into the opposite wall.

"Mike? Was that you?" Jill called out, walking cautiously into the center of the arena.

"I…think so." Mike replied, surprised at his own booming voice.

Jill smiled, "You must have turned into an invisible giant! The dragon looks like it's unconscious, can you change back or do you need Sarah's help again?"

Mike tried to will himself back to normal, but nothing happened. "I guess I need Sarah's help. But how is she going to do that if she can't see me?" he asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, it'll be easy to find you." Jill reassured him, looking up where she guessed his head must be. Sarah walked carefully towards the center of the arena, hands out to keep from running into Mike face first.

She found what felt like his shoe after several minutes of shuffling around and slapped it, hoping the shoe wouldn't get in the way. It didn’t, and a female Mike was suddenly standing there in front of Sarah. "Well, at least your clothes didn't get destroyed when you transformed." Sarah remarked. Whatever had happened to his clothes when he became the invisible giant, they were back to normal. Unfortunately, they were extremely loose on the female Mike! Sarah quickly slapped Mike's arm, returning him to normal.

"Well done!" Boomed the man on the throne. "You've earned the right to speak to Good Magician Humphrey and ask your question!" With that the man sunk down into the floor and disappeared. Another portcullis opened up, revealing a brightly lit passageway. Shrugging, the three friends walked down the passageway and found themselves in a library filled from floor to ceiling with books. A wizened old man was sat at a desk with a giant tome on top. "About time you got here!" he grouched, "Hurry up and ask your question!"

Sarah looked at Jill and said, "You're the one who knows this place, why don't you ask it?" Mike nodded his agreement.

Jill thought about how she wanted to word her question and then said, "How can Sarah change back to the way she was before Venus cursed her?"

The magician snorted irritably, "Not a very good question! All she has to do is accept her femininity and she can change back any time she wants. Now go!"

"Go ahead and open the portal Sarah, that's all the answer we're going to get." Jill said to Sarah and Mike's surprise. Shrugging, she did so and they stepped back into their own world.