Chapter - 53 : Trapped Part - 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey guys if you like fanfic or want to Read 70+ Chapters ahead or just want to support take a visit on my patreon
(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
patreon.com/Tojishin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Actually, strictly speaking, the ordinary variety of fairy surrounding us now is just what I said before: obsessively vain, but not out to do anyone harm." Luna corrected. "It is the stronger sorts, larger, more human-like that we have to fear. But a refuge in a sanctuary is exactly the sort of place to find them, if they could still be found anywhere."
"The words of the guy who wrote Peter Pan come to mind," Harry grinned, getting down on his hands and knees by the lake entrance. "He said Tinkerbell was too small to have more than one feeling at once, and when she was good, she was all good. But when she was bad, she was all bad."
"Honestly, most fairies are stuck on 'conceited' rather than good or bad, but you do make a valid point," Luna allowed.
"What are you doing?" Hermione pressed around to see what Harry was up to.
He'd drawn a sword from a concealed sheath on his body, and was extending the bare blade outside of the large cave entrance, just above the surface of the naiad-populated water. "Trying to see some of what is around this cave, using the blade as a mirror - I figured they won't grab bare steel."
Moments later he withdrew the sword and sat down heavily. "Bad news, girls. I can confirm the existence of wooden walkways and gazebos around the lake - the broad grassy lawn, the hedge, everything. There's even an overgrown island in the center of the lake."
"The Shrine of the Fairy Queen," Luna whispered, frozen in stark terror.
"That's bad." Hermione confirmed.
"I think I'd take being at the heart of a volcano, or raging tribes of cannibals just about any day of the week," Harry acknowledged, before his eyes went terribly wide. "And that only makes this development more chilling."
Pushing at it from below the surface of the water, the naiads had opened up the boathouse and brought forth a wide rowboat, which they guided to the mouth of the cave, grounding it on the sands there.
Luna went from paralyzed in fear to scrambling away from it in stark terror, pressing herself up flat against the far side of the cave from the water, her eyes bulging as she considered this offering.
Hermione had something else to occupy her. "Wasn't that Gryffindor's sword?"
"Yes," Harry nodded, resheathing the weapon where it had been concealed on his body. "And before you ask, yes, I'm still carrying the other artifacts I got from the Founders. Frankly, it had become habit, and I forgot."
Putting the sword away, his robes tore open along a seam, revealing the silver armor he wore concealed.
"That too?" Hermione asked, finding a moment of merriment in teasing him.
"Yes. Although this stuff really ought to have decomposed." Harry tapped his armor several times, yet still found it sound.
"That's because it's living silver," Luna supplied, still pressing herself against the back wall of the cave and staring in fear at the boat the naiads offered. "The ritual to create it is complex, but it involves ramora scales and occamy eggs, both highly magical biological silver."
"Oh?" Harry blinking in surprise at his own suit of armor.
"I thought I overheard someone calling that Goblin Silver?" Hermione mused.
"Goblins stole the techniques for creating it from the dwarves, who originally developed the secret process. There might be more, but I'm having trouble recalling it because at the moment I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought," the blonde girl stated calmly, still staring at the boat.
"Oh," Hermione murmured softly.
What sort of response was there to that?
"Luna, why are you scared of the boat?" she asked.
"It's not the boat. It's that naiads are offering it," she was answered.
Hermione looked back and forth between the boat and the blonde. "But that's good, right? You did say that boats were one of their weaknesses."
"Exactly." Luna nodded, still staring at the conveyance. "Hermione, how many times have you had a vampire corner you, who offered you a cross and wooden stake to wield against him?"
Hermione froze. "That... wouldn't happen."
"Exactly," the blonde nodded, eyes still on the boat. "So if it does, you know that either the item is trapped to not work properly, or that normal rules have gone out the window."
Harry grew sober, and chimed in, "In which case you're even worse off than normal, as knowing the rules is the only kind of safety you can have with magical creatures."
"Uh huh," Luna nodded, still staring at the boat like it was some sort of dangerous wild animal that might leap out of the water and bite her.
Actually, in light of where they were, and Harry's last statement, Hermione spent a moment examining it herself - it just might!
Another patch of cloth disintegrated under Harry's hands, as he gave an experimental tug on one of his sleeves. Grimacing, he intoned, "You know, I have good news and bad news."
"I'd like to hear some good news," Hermione chimed.
"Even bad news could only be better than that boat," Luna mumbled ominously.
"Right." Harry inhaled deeply. "Well, the good news is that I've identified the mischief that was worked on us last night, I think. Since fey creatures seem to stick by a rule of 'one prank per opportunity' if we can get out of here before we fall asleep again, we ought to be able to get out of here in our own time period, and not rub shoulders with King Arthur, or whatever."
"That's nice," Hermione agreed, feeling great relief over that problem.
"The bad news," Harry continued. "Is that our clothes are disintegrating."
Hermione jerked in surprise and one of her socks came apart, exploding into tatters under the pressure of staying around her perfectly normal leg.
"It seems they did not survive the ritual last night," Harry continued in a monotone. "Or rather I should say they suffered some overload damage, but even so they couldn't, shouldn't be decomposing this fast. So the time magic we've been fearing was probably used to speed up their decay. On the plus side, when you consider what they are capable of, the prank our last sleep session was something fairly mild. Embarrassing rather than debilitating."
"Humiliating mortals is sport for most types of fey," Luna almost seemed relieved by this revelation. Leaning forward she left a large patch of lint fluff where she'd pressed herself so hard against the cave wall.
Hermione pursed her lips. "Do you mean to say that if we stay in this cave any longer, say long enough to go to sleep again, that not only might we be joining Buck Rogers in the 25th Century when we do eventually escape, but we are liable to be NAKED!?"
"That does appear to be an accurate summation, yes," Harry acknowledged, before he met her eyes with a wan smile and repeated Luna's phrase. "Humiliating mortals is sport for most types of fey."
The daughter of dentists scowled fiercely, holding out her hand. "Gimme that language lozenge! We are going to spend a half an hour hunting for runes, and if that doesn't work..."
She reached out a hand and somehow yanked a small tuft of hair off a fairy when she'd never been able to catch one before. "You are going to charge some polyjuice, Harry!"
"Yes, Ma'am!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey guys if you like fanfic or want to Read 70+ Chapters ahead or just want to support take a visit on my patreon
(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
patreon.com/Tojishin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~