And Now for Something Completely Different

Cain snored, because of this; Glitch didn’t get the two hour rest he wanted. They had to head out as soon as Cain woke up from the nap. DG and Raw were captured and this adventure just kept getting more important.

They trudged their way back to the Sorceress’s tower. As they neared it, Glitch felt it’s shadow creep into his soul. Not one to allow dark thoughts to keep him down, he thought about the next best thing to Harry and Cain to keep his spirits up, dancing. He’d been talking about dancing since the shadow hit them.

“Dancing is all about rhythm and rhythm comes directly from the soul.” He told his Harry and Cain. He saw them share amused looks over his zipper, but he knew that he could dance. “I bet I can dance better then either of you.” He proclaimed as they watched the teams of Long Coats patrol the tower.

Harry laughed and agreed with him but Cain called his bet. Glitch huffed. He would show them.

They decided that the best way to get in would be to get uniforms from a small team, and infiltrate that way. They snuck up on a team of four Harry spotted that were hidden from direct view in between some hills. Glitch decided this was a perfect time to show them how well he could dance, and used graceful fluid movements to dispatch of the four guards. They were not even remembered, he just reacted. Flashes of instances where he’d danced like this before slid across his consciousness, but he paid them no mind.

Harry had seen him dance this way before, but Glitch took extreme pleasure in the expression of dazed befuddlement on Cain’s face. It took a lot to surprise a boy scout.

They quickly donned the uniforms over their clothes, and Cain formed them into proper team formation; like a triangle, Cain in front, flanked by Harry and Glitch. He told them not to talk or smile, and Glitch wanted to do the opposite just to bother him, but a look from Harry stopped him.

Glitch followed hazy memories in the direction of the dungeons. He wasn’t looking forward to being in there. He couldn’t remember what happened down there but he knew it wasn’t good.

He needn’t have worried; somehow DG got Raw and herself out and were following a small dog.

Harry immediately distrusted the dog, he could tell it wasn’t really a dog, but DG trusted it. They had to move quickly when the alarm sounded. The little dog led them out a vent tube and to the outside. It was too easy and Harry’s distrust increased.

They followed it to a river where they stopped and hid the uniforms. The little dog stopped and Harry felt the air around them shift. The dog warped and contorted until a pudgy black man stood in its place. As soon as the contortions started Harry and Cain trained their weapons on it. Raw growled at him.

“Whoa, I am a friend of your mother’s.” the man said to DG. Harry and Cain shared a silent conversation and decided to allow the man to think DG was in charge. “She sent me to help you find the emerald.”

Apparently to DG and Cain it was plausible, and Cain put down his gun. Harry, unsure if they were right, also lowered his wand. He decided to not pull it anymore and to tell the others to keep his gift silent until the dog man was gone.

Cain turned to DG, “what about the Mystic man?”

DG’s eyes softened, “He’s dead, she killed him. I’m sorry.” Glitch put a hand on Cain’s arm, and DG’s eye’s widened when he didn’t shrug it off. “How?” Glitch asked her. “She sucked out his life.” Harry shivered thinking about the Dementors, but didn’t mention it. He didn’t trust the dog.

The shape shifter readjusted his weight and said that they should move. Cain almost chuckled and told him, he wasn’t coming. Glitch, with his usual optimism, argued that the man should come with them; he did help them after all. Harry made a note to himself to speak to Glitch about trusting their instincts more.

“I know you, you are Wyatt Cain, tin man for the mystic man, you’re DG and you are Raw.” Cain raised his gun, “How do you know our names?”

The dog man pulled out a wanted poster with everyone but Harry on it. He looked at Harry, “I don’t know you.” Harry smirked at him and hit Glitch when he was about to introduce him. “I don’t know you either.”

“Look I’m sorry if I upset you, but there’s really not a good time to pull the whole beast into man moment, you just kinda…wam… and hope for the best.” His antics pleased DG and Glitch, but Harry wasn’t convinced.

He reached into his coat and pulled out a doll in a green dress, it triggered a memory for DG. Harry watched with suspicion as the doll started spinning and flew into her hand. “Toto! You were my tutor.”

He nodded, “Magic is in your blood, your mother put a spell on your memories.”

She looked introspective and said, “I’ve been told to find the grey gale.” Then her gaze sharpened and she asked how her mother could have told him anything if she was in Askadelia’s prison. “She came to me…in a dream.” Harry tired not to laugh. A flimsy excuse like that deserved nothing. The man looked far to relieved to think of any excuse at all.

DG nodded and told them, “the mystic man said to head south.”

Glitch nodded and wet his finger to try and find south. Harry laughed at his expression when he couldn’t get a wind. The zipper head nodded decisively and started off East. Cain grabbed his arm to pull him in the correct direction. Harry chuckled and eyed the dog man one last time.

Cain waited for him to catch up and told them that south led through the Papey fields. Harry groaned, last time was so much fun.

After a few hours of walking, Harry is hit with another vision:

~~~~~~~~
The beautiful woman from the first vision was banging relentlessly on a door with a grim and a swan on it. The door opened and an older Sirius appeared. “Az, can I help you?” Sirius’ voice was cold and sharp. The relationship between the two had obviously deteriorated.
Sirius’ expression turned to shock when he saw Azkadelia crying. “You have to take him, you have to take him away. She will kill him. Please daddy!!” She fell into his arm and Sirius kissed the top of her head in reflex. “I’ll take care of him love, but then I’m going away. I can’t see you like this.”
She nodded and sobbed in his arms.
~~~~~~~

Harry’s vision white’d out as he came back to the present. Glitch and Cain had either arm and were stabilizing him. “Another vision?” DG asked? Harry nodded. “What was it?” Harry looked at the shape shifter who was not hiding his interest well and shook his head. He was not about to tell, what could be a spy, anything.

They continued on at a fast pace. Harry set it hoping that the dog man would give up and leave them. He didn’t, just changed into the little dog and barked at them. Harry hissed at him, “If you give away our position I will gut you myself.” Harry was satisfied by the little whimper that escaped the annoying canine.

They made it to the Papey fields with little issues, but had little hope to pass unscathed. Glitch and Raw told them the story of the Papey. “It used to be a beautiful orchard. The fruit so sweet it made the taste buds sing.”

“What happened to it” DG asked.

“No one knows, about 15 annuals ago they just all died.” Glitch says, “You’d think someone would have made something to help…a dohicky…or a thing…with other…things..” he shrugged and continued on walking, not remembering their current conversation.

Raw growled out, “Papey were peaceful, farmers now hunters.”

They heard growls behind them and Cain shouted out, “Runner Scouts!!” They ran until they were surrounded. Cain shot at them until he ran out of bullets, they all looked at Harry desperately begging him to do something, but he can’t use magic in front of the spy. He pushes Glitch behind him. If it get’s to bad he’ll use it and obliviate the dog man later.

Slowly they backed up into a tree and Glitch cried out to DG to do something. She raised the marked hand, but nothing happened. She backed up into the tree more and cried out in fear.

Just as she put her hand on the branches, a pulse of strong magic flew from her and into the tree. It started growing and swiftly produced fruit. The group’s eyes widened in surprise and the scouts bowed to them, humming.

Swiftly they flew out of there, not turning their backs on the hunters until they are far clear of them.

Harry glanced behind them once more just in time to see one of the monkey bats land at the edge of the field. He watched it, waiting for it to move. It just took off, and flew back in the direction it came. He turned around to the others to see if any of them noticed. Toto looked nervous and Harry snarled at him. “If I find out you’re betraying us. You will wish the sorceress had killed you.” He pushes past the terrified man and trudges to the front of the group, setting up a grueling pace.

~~o0o~~

Cain wiped the sweat from his brow and checked the state of the others. Anger is pulsing from Harry in waves and not even Glitch has the courage to approach him. DG and Glitch seem to be hanging in there but both Toto and Raw need a break. He runs up to Harry.

“Harry, we need to take a break.” Harry snarls and him and Cain grabs his arm forcefully. He ducks a swing and pushes Harry away from him. He doesn’t know what’s wrong, but he will be damned before he lets Harry hurt them.

Harry stumbles back and then shakes his head. Some of the anger leaves him and he looked up at them all sheepishly. Cain noticed that he didn’t look at the dog man. “Sorry guys, I’m being a dick. Lets take a break.” They all nod and the shape shifter and Raw collapse on the ground.

Cain walked as close to Harry as he could get, facing the other direction and says in a low voice, “I don’t trust him either, but it’s better to have him near us and know where he is and keep an eye on him, then to have him follow us and not know what he’s up to.” The tin man could see Harry disagreed but was happy when he nodded.

They decided to stay in a clearing not far from where they stopped and have a rest. DG falls asleep almost instantly. Glitch curls up with Harry and Cain keeps watch. Raw leaves to search for food. Toto wants to leave with him, but Cain won’t let him out of his sight. He huffed and sat down as far from Harry as he could. Cain chuckled seeing it. ‘the sorcerer sure scared the tar out of that one’

Raw returns with food just as DG wakes up on a gasp. “Did you have a vision princess?” Harry asks her, Cain assumes that calling her princess must be code for ‘your aloud to talk about this in front of the spy’ because she does. Although, it could be that she would have anyway.

“Azkadelia told me that we used to be friends, I didn’t believe her. But now I’m not so sure.” She looks at Harry who nods, so she continues. “In my dream I’m scared and my mother holds me on a swing in a special place, a beautiful place by a lake.”

Cain takes a bite of an apple and says, “There’s about a hundred lakes south of here.”

“I don’t know which one it is!” She cries as she stands.

Glitch corrects her from the safety of Harry’s arms, “You know princess, you’ve been there before.”

She throws her arms up in agitation, “But I can’t remember it!”

Glitch, their resident expert on remembering or not remembering things, says softly, “Try, what was it like?”

She closes her eyes and focuses inward. Eventually she says, “Magical”

Cain laughs when Harry groans as they get up to follow DG. Cain noticed that she has a tendency to run off after she gets a new memory. “To get to lake country we’ll have to go over the crack.” He tells Glitch and Harry. They nod, and Cain catches the dog man dropping something. He pushes it to the back of his mind but makes a note to mention it to Harry later. While they walk, Glitch reaches out to hold Cain’s hand. And he can feel his ice heart melt a little bit more. Adora never wanted to display casual affection like this.