The Labyrinths of Nazaire

The following morning Peter and Alice sat in the garden as they weren't having any classes and they were both looking very distraught, Alice especially, because she didn't particularly get any sleep that night as she pondered on what the Professor might've been up to. She tried her hardest not to think about the whole situation but the red lights she saw coming from his office were very disturbing, she'd seen a lot in her life but the thought that the professor might be killing Nomags or using summoned beasts for unknown purposes just made her feel all the more disturbed.

"What do you think the Professor's up to?" Alice asked.

"I don't know, but the red light you guys saw just means he isn't up to any good" Peter said.

"If he's up to something bad then I think Claire and I are in trouble, especially Claire, she isn't very good at defending herself," Alice said.

"Trouble?" Peter said looking confused.

"Yeah, he saw us outside his office and I'm pretty sure he knows we saw the red light too," Alice said worriedly.

"You'll be fine if it comes to it, he isn't much of a threat," Peter said.

"You can't be too sure about that because he has a trump card we don't have," Alice said.

"And what might that be?" Peter asked.

"The element of surprise" Alice replied "I also have to be with Claire, I don't think she's safe," Alice said. They both left to look for Claire as the bell rang for lunchtime, they went to the year 4 class but didn't find her, they looked for her at the cafeteria but still, they couldn't find her and then they asked her friend Clarisse who sat next to her but she didn't know where Claire was and it started to make Alice very worried.

"Wait I have an idea," Peter said.

"If it helps find Claire, I want to hear it," Alice said.

"You know how I keep on muttering spells in my sleep, well I got your mom to help me write them, but she was only able to get down a few. And it turns out that one of those spells helps to find the exact location of a soul provided I have an item of theirs" Peter said.

"That's very good, I have something of hers," Alice said as she pulled out a hairpin Claire gave her as a symbol of friendship. They went back to the garden and went behind the Cleom flowers, also known as spider flowers and they grew up to six feet and had distinctive pink, white or purple flowers. The Cleom flowers were so tall they made a perfect hiding place.

With the hairpin in Peter's hand, he muttered "Quaero" and suddenly a dark blueish flame covered his hand and in the flame, they saw Claire in the Library, after a couple of seconds the flames went off and they walked speedily for the library. Alice attempted to run but Peter cautioned her so they wouldn't draw unnecessary attention to themselves. They entered the Library and found Claire just sitting at the desk close to the window. Alice ran ahead of Peter on seeing Claire, Claire got up from where she was sitting and Alice hugged her tightly.

"Is everything alright?" Claire asked.

"I thought I lost you, with what's happening with the professor I just got scared that maybe he got you, I looked for you in all the places I thought you would be but couldn't find you," Alice said crying.

"It's ok now, I'm alright so stop crying," Claire said wiping the tears from Alice's eyes. Although Alice was her teacher Claire was two years older than her, so it made Alice see her like an elder sister. They made their way to the long bench beside the desk and sat.

"What are you doing here by the way," Peter asked.

"I came here to see if there were other meanings to a red light coming from a spell," Claire said.

"Did you find anything?" Alice asked.

"I didn't, it was just the same two things we know of," Claire said "I couldn't sleep last night and I told myself I'd come and search out any other meaning to that red light to justify what we saw" she continued.

"We'll just have to find out ourselves what he's up to," Alice said.

That night they gathered at the garden behind the Cleom flowers, they waited till after the bell had rung for Lights out and carefully tiptoed Into the school corridors and down to the facilities room. They had to watch out for Mr. Julien because of his keen sense of smell and sharp eyesight, they hid in corners and had to enter empty classrooms whenever they saw Mr. Julien in the distance. After they were sure he wasn't in sight they hurried into the facilities room. it wasn't very spacious but it could fit the three of them and still have a little more room, As they waited for the teachers to sign out Claire went to the other end of the room so she could relax. She got to the cobblestoned wall and rested her body on it, but just then her head pushed a stone on the stoned wall and it started to turn slowly, they couldn't pull her back from the wall as it turned so they jumped to the other side. When the wall had completed its rotation, Claire fell from the wall and ran over to where Alice was. They were a bit scared as they didn't know what to do so they started walking, after taking four turns on their way they discovered they ended up where they first began.

"Where's this place?" Peter asked.

"Judging by what just happened it would seem we're in a Labyrinth," Alice said.

"I've heard stories about Nazaire having a Labyrinth but I didn't think it would be real," Claire said as she closely inspected the wall.

"How do we get out of here then?" Peter asked.

"I guess we'll have to get to the end of this place, I reckon there would be a door at the end," Alice said. They walked the Labyrinths for hours until they got to a part where they saw water on the ground with skulls and bones, Claire started to become frightened as she clung tightly to Peter's slightly oversized sweatshirt. They walked a further distance and this time they heard a roar, it sounded like that of a Lion but they also heard hissing and the sound of a goat, they attempted running as they heard loud footsteps marching towards them but when they turned they saw the path in which they came had been blocked by a large wall leaving them at the mercy of whatever was coming.

"What might that be?" Claire asked in fright.

"From the sounds we heard it seems it's a chimera, I read about them back at the library at Melissa's cottage," Peter said.

"Did the book say how to stop it?" Alice asked.

"I guess it did but I never got to find out cause I got bored," Peter said as he feigned a giggle. The monster came out from the bend and faced them, it was standing forty yards from them and by the size of it, it looked it could close up the gap in one jump. It was a terrifying creature, it had the head of a Lion and that of a goat, the body of a bear, and a snake for its tail.

"Flammeum" Alice bellowed stretching her hand at the monster, and a large flaming spear was shot at it but it didn't do much damage as it fell to the ground immediately it hit its head. The Chimera took a step back and opened his mouth and spewed fire at them but Peter blocked it by creating a large golem between them and the fire. Just then Alice rolled out from behind the golem stretching her hands and bellowed "Draco igneus", and a large fiery dragon came out heading towards the monster but it spewed fire again from its mouth and halted the progress of the fiery dragon, both flames collided and burnt out for about twenty seconds before the fire from the Chimera subdued the fiery Dragon and hit the golem once more. Peter couldn't do any spells as he concentrated on holding up the golem as it was their only form of protection. Alice was left to battle it out with the creature and she wasn't short of spells either.

"Spina vites" Alice shouted and this time loads of Vines came out from beneath the Chimera and tied it up while releasing spikes to Pierce through it, the spell looked like it would do the trick for a moment because loads of blood were spurting from its body but the Chimera wouldn't be outdone by mere vines. The mouth of the Snake ate away the Vines tying its body and hurled itself at Alice but she acrobatically dodged the strike. Alice was panting heavily as she felt energy leaving her but she knew if she stopped the fight it would spell death for her so she bravely ran towards the Monster but the beast swung its paw at her and unable to dodge she was blasted against the wall. Peter seeing this lost his head and broke Concentration, the golem fell but this time his eyes darkened as he levitated towards the beast he created a large spear of ice in his hand and struck the head of the Chimera brutally injuring it and it fell and let out a loud whimper but it soon got up and used its tail to hit Peter to the ground, he rolled around a bit and got up, this time he spread out his palm and a black ball formed over the Chimera but before he could close his hand so the ball could fall and crush the Chimera the air became cold and a portal opened just above them and two very long arms grabbed the three of them and took them through the portal after which it closed.