"What was that?" Angus looked around the interior of his and Rohan's hut quickly. Nothing seemed amiss, but the noise came again, softly, a scratchy, cracking, rustling, chewing noise. Rohan shrugged. "Maybe it's a chicken."
"No, it's different from that..." Angus realized that the sound was coming from Rohan's direction. "Very funny Rohan, cut that out."
"It isn't me," Rohan protested.
"Maybe you sat on Aiedeen or something..." mused Angus. Rohan jumped up from the edge of his bed, and checked the blankets where he had been sitting for the pixie. Fortunately, she wasn't there. The noise continued, and Rohan looked under his bed, to discover a filthy-looking mouse busily chewing the leather off a knife-handle.
"That's my knife, you mangy little-" Rohan lunged for the mouse angrily, and missed. The mouse bolted for the door, but was headed off by Angus, so it darted under the table instead. Rohan picked up the three-legged stool, and held it upside-down in one hand, ready to squash the mouse as soon as it came within range. Angus advanced carefully, ready to cover the door in the mouse tried for it again. Far away in Temra, Queen Maeve was sitting on her carved throne with her eyes closed, watching their efforts through the eyes of the mouse, for it was her creature.
"Come on, Rohan..." she encouraged, smugly. The mouse looked at Angus, who was fast, then at Rohan, who was big, and decided it's best chance of escape lay in slipping past Rohan. It made a break for it, and only narrowly escaped being stomped. In evading Rohan, however, it had to come within range of Angus, which proved to be it's undoing. Angus grabbed the mouse.
"Hah!"
"You got him!" agreed Rohan.
"Oh, well..." muttered Maeve. "Creature of stealing, creature of fright, exchange your stature with that knight!" Immediately, the mouse began to grow, and Angus started to shrink.
"Not again!" appealed Angus. The mouse leveled off at the size of small pony, and Angus was now the size of the mouse. The mouse turned on Angus with vengeance in its beady eyes. Angus started backing towards the wall.
"Umm... nice mousie..."
"I don't think so!" Rohan drew his sword and slashed at the creature, forcing it to retreat. The mouse squealed, and snapped at Rohan's shin, but it couldn't bite through the bindings that made up the tops of his boots. Rohan fired a carefully-aimed burst of flame at the mouse, which sent it out of the hut at a dead run. From outside, one of the villagers screamed.
"Oh, no-" Rohan ran out after the giant mouse. Angus followed him, over what was now about fifty feet of thick yellow sticks- -the straw-covered floor.
"Kill it!"
"Watch out for it's teeth!"
"Careful now!" Several of the villagers, armed with pitchforks and sticks, had the giant mouse at bay at the foot of an oak tree. The mouse was darting back and forth, baring its huge front teeth at the humans. Rohan joined the ring around the mouse and the tree, and tried firing at it with his sword again. The mouse, now scorched in two places, squealed and ran up the tree, vertically. The villagers gasped. Rohan fired again, but the mouse was too quick for him, and ducked behind the bole of the tree just in time. Rohan's shot went wide, scorching a clump of leaves on it's way skyward. Rohan growled. The mouse threaded it's way into the highest branches that would bear it's weight, and moved off quickly through the interlacing treetops overhead. "It's getting away!" The mouse most certainly was. It dropped back down to the ground, and scampered for its life, quickly outdistancing Rohan and the villagers.
"We showed that vermin!" laughed one of the villagers.
"We certainly did, but it might return. I'll set out bait and wait for it tonight." Rohan decided.
"Is rat meat any good?"
Back at the village, Angus was engaged in fierce combat with a flock of chickens. They weren't sure what he was, but he looked good to eat, so they were trying to peck him. Angus slung stones at them with his mace, and tried to stay out of range long enough to call his armor. He spotted an overturned bucket, and made for it, continuing to pelt the chickens with pebbles. The chickens followed him, ducking his mace-stones whenever possible. Finally safe, for the moment, Angus held his mace over his head and called, "Earth beneath me!" His silver mystic armor appeared, and he stomped out of the bucket, in the mood for roast chicken.
When Rohan got back to the village, he saw a circle of wary and subdued-looking chickens in the yard in front of his hut. In the center of the ring was Angus, standing proudly over a dead chicken.
"Ahh, Rohan, about time you showed up. These vicious ingrates," he indicated the chickens with a contemptuous wave of his arm, "Mistook me for a worm."
"You showed them a thing or two..." laughed Rohan.
"Sorry about the chicken, but it had to be done."
"Are you all right?" asked Rohan. Angus shrugged, causing his armor to clink, then pointed to a spot just above his left ear.
"I'm all right, but one of them pecked my head."
"Which one?"
"THAT one." Angus kicked at the dead chicken with a mailed boot.
"So much for her. -Let me see your head."
"Not here... these stool-pigeons are just waiting for an opening."
Angus glanced around at the ring of chickens suspiciously.
"Here." Rohan put his right hand out on the ground near Angus, palm upwards. Angus walked onto it, and Rohan carried him inside the hut, the dead chicken dangling from Rohan's other hand.
Safely on the tabletop, Angus removed his helmet, and let Rohan take a look at his injury. peering closely, Rohan saw that the cut wasn't serious, but it would need to be cleaned and bandaged.
"How does it look?" asked Angus.
"Hmm... not so bad. You got lucky, I'd say."
"Is it under my hair?"
"Yeah, your hair'll cover it."
"Good. I wouldn't want to end up lookin' like Torq, you know?"
"Ugh." agreed Rohan. "I can't think what to use for a bandage on it, though."
"You could use my sleeve."
"Aiedeen?" called Rohan, "I need your help with something-"
"Right here, Rohan-" Aiedeen floated in the window, and did a double take at the sight of the tiny silver figure on the table. "-What happened to Angus?"
"More of Maeve's tricks." Angus informed her. He pointed to his cut, and added, "And this is from a horrible beast twice my size."
"Oh-!" Aiedeen caught sight of the dead chicken, and tittered. "So I see. Things aren't so simple at my size, are they?"
"Can you help me with this?" Angus asked. Aiedeen landed on the table next to him, and a ball of dandelion fluff appeared in her hand.
"Now where...? Aha." Aiedeen spotted a cup of nectar on the table, and dunked the ball into it. She returned to Angus, and poised the sodden fluffball over his cut. "Now try to hold still..." She dabbed at the wound, trying to clean it out a bit.
"Yeow!"
"Oh, stop."
"That nectar stings!"
"Sorry." Aiedeen didn't sound particularly apologetic. Angus gritted his teeth, and confined himself to small whimpering noises. When the wound was clean, Aiedeen placed another fluffball over it, and tied a piece of spindrift over it to hold the fluffball in place. Angus touched the bandage with his fingers gingerly.
"Thanks, Aiedeen."
"You're welcome." Aiedeen patted his cheek in a big-sisterly jesture, then flitted back over to Rohan. Angus opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it, and closed it again. "What now?" asked Aiedeen.
"Come on, let's go get Cathbad to take this spell off." said Angus, briskly. Rohan nodded.
"Need a ride?"
"IF it wouldn't be too much to ask." Angus replied, jokingly. He took a seat on Rohan's palm, and the three of them set out for the castle.
"What have we here?" asked Cathbad, an amused smile tugging at the sides of his long gray mustache.
"I grabbed a mouse, and THIS happened. -The mouse is about the size of a horse right now, if that means anything." explained Angus. Rohan deposited Angus on Cathbad's workbench, where he started pacing, his boot-falls sounding like the drumming of fingers. He had dispensed with his armor, since he couldn't comfortably wear his helmet with the bandage anyway.
"Oh, dear..." muttered Cathbad.
"What???" demanded Angus, anxiously.
"I have seen this spell before. In order to return you to your original size, the mouse you traded sizes with must be caught and destroyed."
"You can't just change him back?" asked Rohan.
"No, no, this spell is quite ridgid. In order to return both creatures to their natural size, one or the other of them must die."
"I vote the mouse dies." said Angus, firmly.
"I suppose..." sighed Cathbad. "Rohan, do you know where the giant mouse has gone?"
"No, but I'm going to find out." Rohan replied. Ivar and Dierdre walked in, and stopped short when they saw Angus.
"What happened to you?" asked Dierdre, concerned.
"Perhaps more to the point, what have you done?" smirked Ivar.
"Someone cast a spell on him." Rohan interrupted. "-And we need your skills to break it."
"MY skills?" Ivar asked, puzzled.
"Ever tracked a giant mouse before?"
"Do you think it'll come tonight?" whispered Angus.
"Not if you keep talking." Rohan whispered back. A large basket of food lay on the forest floor below the tree the mystic knights were hiding in: bread, cheese, and apples. -Tempting bait for any mouse, giant or otherwise. So far though, the mouse hadn't showed.
"Couldn't we have at least waited on the ground?" complained Dierdre. The branch she was sitting on had a knot which was most uncomfortable, especially since she wasn't wearing pants like the others.
"We have a much better chance of drawing out the mouse by hiding in this tree." Ivar explained. "Mice don't look up very often."
"Shhh." whispered Angus. Thirty seconds passed uneventfully.
"Anybody want more chicken?" whispered Rohan.
"Certainly." replied Ivar.
"All right." said the Princess.
"No thanks, I'm full." sighed Angus, happily.
"At least we have found one fine use for your being small." noted Ivar, amused.
"You can say that again, sir eats-at-the-castle-kitchens."
"Quiet, both of ye." hissed Rohan. Thirty seconds passed...
"I take it your trap didn't work?" Conchobar surveyed his knights critically.
"No, my king." admitted Rohan, uncomfortably.
"And the mouse is nearly impossible to track once it takes to the higher branches." added Ivar.
"Perhaps Finn Varra could show us where the mouse is." suggested Dierdre.
"Ask him." nodded Conchobar. "If Maeve learns what has happened, she is sure to try and use this to her advantage."
"My king, this spell was cast by Maeve, I am sure of it." put in Cathbad. A messenger entered the throne room, and bowed to king Conchobar.
"I've a message from commander Uan."
"Speak." Conchobar motioned with his hand for the messenger to continue.
"The giant mouse was sighted last night, in the Kells army camp to the North of here. It was trying to get into the grain supplies, but we managed to drive it away."
"I see..." Conchobar glanced at Ivar, then turned his attention back to the messenger. "Was there anything else?"
"No, sire."
"That'll be all." The messenger departed. Conchobar turned back to the knights. "Ivar, Dierdre, go to the camp and try to pick up the mouse's trail. Rohan, go to Tir na nOg and see what you can find out." Rohan nodded.
"What about me?" asked Angus, from the landing leading to Cathbad's chamber.
"You," replied Cathbad, "Will stay here."
"But-"
"Only until you are returned to your natural size, I assure you." Cathbad added, in a tone that implied he liked the arrangement even less than Angus did.
"Well... okay." Angus's eyes flicked in the direction of Cathbad's chamber speculatively.
While Rohan journeyed to Tir na nOg, Dierdre and Ivar went to the North camp of the Kells army to search for tracks. Ivar found the mouse's trail, and they followed it out onto the bleak moorlands beyond the camp, and on, and on... The mouse clearly hadn't liked remaining in one place for too long. The trail wound down into a sheltered, steep-sided valley, and the mouse had stopped for a drink of water from the lake running along the bottom of the valley. The tracks in the mud near the water's edge were fresh and clear.
"We're not far behind now." said Ivar, tracing one of the giant pawprints with his fingertip.
"Get them!" the two mystic knights looked up to find a squadron of Temra soldiers bearing down on them, under the command of Torq, who was watching from a nearby ridge. This fight wouldn't even be close to fair.
"Quick, our armor!" exclaimed Dierdre. They raised their weapons to the sky, and called,
"Air above me!"
"Water around me!" The elemental corona surrounded each of them, and their armor appeared. This didn't seem to have impressed the Temras much. They came down the hillside running, hoping to engage the two knights in hand-to-hand combat before they could use their weapons from a distance. The Temras were disappointed. Dierdre fired her whirlwind crossbow into the main group, knocking them off their feet, and sending most of them tumbling down the steep hillside in free-fall. Ivar fired his trident, and took down two more. Ivar noticed the direction in which some of the Temras were falling, with alarm.
"My lady, look out!" Dierdre turned in the direction of Ivar's voice, and realized why he was worried about in an instant. An instant was all she had. Dierdre didn't have time to get out of the path of the Temra soldier hurtling towards her, so she fired her crossbow point-blank. The backlash of wind knocked her out into the lake, but kept the Temra soldier from crashing into her. Ivar used his battle-gauntlet to drive back the remaining Temra warriors, then anxiously looked back at the lake to make sure Dierdre was all right. Dierdre had just come up, about thirty feet from shore, and was treading water for a moment, while she caught her breath.
"Get up, you fools!" yelled Torq, at the downed Temras. The solders who had fallen down the hill were now floundering in the shallows of the lake, and they followed Torq's order, if somewhat reluctantly. Ivar found himself caught between his enemies and his element.
"Hey Cathbad, can I-" Angus began, pointing to a scroll. "No!" returned Cathbad, in exasperation. "For the last time, stop interrupting me!" Cathbad returned to the ginger root he was crushing, muttering something about rats and buckets of water. Angus sighed. From the floor, he couldn't reach any of Cathbad's scrolls or powders, there was nothing interesting on the floor except a fine coating of dust, and even that was as gray as Cathbad's beard. It also made his nose itch like crazy. Cathbad had confined him to this chamber on the grounds that he would be a distraction in the throne room, and in danger of being stepped on anywhere else in the castle. Angus had already tried climbing out the window of Cathbad's chamber, without success, and Cathbad had threatened to put him in an empty jar if he tried again. Something moved, on the edge of his vision, and Angus looked up sharply. Across the floor, half hidden by a cord of firewood, a sleek brown mouse was watching him curiously, whiskers twirling. Angus's eyes narrowed.
"Well now..." Angus hefted his mace. "You're more my size, aren't ya?" the mouse blinked at him. Angus rushed the mouse, hoping to trap it against the wall, but the mouse bolted for the set of shelves that held Cathbad's magic powders, and slipped between the back of the shelves and the wall. Angus followed. Behind the shelves it was unspeakably dusty. Overhead, spiderwebs cemented the back of the shelves to the stone wall. Six inches from the outer edge of the shelves, there was a mousehole in the wall. It looked like one of the stones had been accidentally loosened, and the mouse had simply finished the job of clearing away the mortar.
"Ah-ha... There's secrets to this place that not even Cathbad knows." murmured Angus, appreciatively. By ducking his head and squeezing in sideways, he fit through the narrow opening, and came through into a slightly wider tunnel. The air in the hole was close, just a bit warm, and it smelled horribly of mouse.
"Whooo-e! And Ivar says ~I~ stink!" It was also dark, and it took Angus's eyes a minute or two to adjust. There was second hole, leading deeper into the stonework, and a soft red glow was coming from it, as was a rustling sound. "What's this?-" Angus looked through into the second chamber of the mousehole, and saw a cozy nest, constructed of many strange things. There were bits of mugwort and healing-herbs, scraps of fabric and threads from Cathbad's clothing, bites of fur from who knows where, a few pieces of straw, a gnawed leather lacing, shreds of parchment, and strands of what looked like human hair. The mouse was watching Angus over the rim of the nest nervously, tail curled over it's back. The most wondrous thing about the little nest, though, was that he could SEE it at all. In the depths of the nest, there was a large red crystal, a glow from it's center the source of the red light that he had seen earlier.
"Great Lugh! -What've you got there?" The mouse twirled it's whiskers at him.
"Take that!" Ivar fired his trident into the dripping Temras before they had a chance to regroup, and they fell back before him. Standing defiantly, Ivar fired at the Temra troops in the other direction. The Temras wavered, scrambling to their feet, but unsure of which direction to run in. On the one hand there was Ivar, but on the other was Torq, and he was fuming from his vantage point, screaming orders at them. From behind Ivar there came a carefully-aimed purple whirlwind, missing the prince by mere feet, and slamming into the Temras decisively. Deirdre stood hip-deep in water, white armor glistening, sighting along her crossbow for another shot. That did it. The Temra soldiers broke ranks and ran. Torq cursed them as they fled, and shook his fist at the two mystic knights. Foiled again. Suddenly, a bolt of fire blasted into the ground in front of Torq's horse, and it reared in terror, nearly unhorsing the Temra captain. Torq pulled hard on the reins, bringing his mount back under control, and made off after his troops, northwards. Rohan stood on the top of the ridge, sword in hand, with the sun over his shoulder.
"Rohan!" called Ivar, "You almost missed the party." Rohan came down the hillside to meet them.
"You had things well in hand, by the looks of it." he observed. Ivar inclined his head modestly.
"They'll be dripping all the way home to Maeve." smiled Deirdre. "-Thank you, Ivar." she added.
"You are most welcome, princess, but it was you who finally scared them off."
"Hmff!" commented Aideen, from over Rohan's shoulder. "I wonder why?"
Deirdre glared at the pixie.
"What of Tir na nOg?" asked Ivar, quickly.
"Fin Varra agrees with Cathabad about how the spell must be broken, but he said that the mouse is not Maeve's creature." replied Rohan, re-sheathing his sword.
"How can that be?"
"It's just an ordinary mouse, but Maeve enchanted it. Fin Varra also had one of his riddles for me, but I don't understand what it means yet; 'Small as a mouse or big as a horse, nature never leaves it's course.'"
"Wonderful." sighed Deirdre.
"Did you find the mouse yet, before the Temras attacked, I mean?" asked Rohan.
"No, but I doubt we were far behind." answered Ivar. I found it's fresh tracks here in the mud." he pointed with his trident to an area that had been trampled during the fight.
"Hmm..." Rohan eyed the mud dubiously. "Could you find it's trail again?" Ivar frowned at the confused tracks, then nodded carefully. "Perhaps."
A quite different mouse was watching Angus, from it's nest. "Let's see, maybe if I..." Angus moved closer, mesmerized by the glowing red stone. The mouse stood it's ground, and squeaked at him indignantly. Angus realized he was backing the mouse into a corner, but his interest in besting the mouse had taken a firm second place to the wondrous crystal. He moved closer to the wall, allowing the mouse to get past him, if it wished to. It hesitated, torn between flight and protecting it's territory from this bizarre intruder. "Yrahhhhhh!" That did it. The mouse abandoned it's post, and Angus approached the glowing crystal. It was half-buried in nesting material, and warm to the touch, slightly oily from the mouse's fur. Within the heart of the crystal, a tiny point blazed brightly, but the closer it's light grew to the surface of the crystal, the dimmer it became. Angus estimated that the crystal was close to the natural size of his lucky gold piece, but thicker, and cylindrical. -Way too heavy to move. He tested this theory, and found it to wrong, but from the drifts of nesting material around the base of the crystal came a series of confused and frightened squeaks. Angus pulled the nesting material aside, to reveal four baby mice, to him the size of sucking-pigs, curled around the crystal for warmth. Their eyes were dark spots, translucent pink lids not yet open, and their alarmed squeaking increased as they felt the draft from the displaced bedding through their thin, soft, fur. Angus stared down at them, realizing why the mouse had been so reluctant to leave her nest. One of the mice pushed it's warm, downy nose against his hand trustingly, searching.
"Ahh, this is just not fair." Angus looked down at the baby mice, and then back at the warm crystal. The remarkable crystal glittered at him, bathed from within by it's own light. He wanted that crystal, but taking it from the baby mice didn't taste right, somehow. The baby mouse that had been nuzzling his hand located his thumb, and started sucking on it happily. "Arggghrghra..." Angus looked back down at the baby mice, and sighed. "Fine, you win, y'little hairballs."
By sundown, Ivar had located the trail again, and he, Deirdre, and Rohan, had followed it for several miles. The mouse was still at large. They camped under the shelter of a spreading oak tree that night, and picked up the trail again in the morning. The mouse continued to evade them throughout the day, though they caught sight of it occasionally. The problem was, the mouse was twice as fast as they were, and as whenever it saw them coming, it would flee in a new direction, trailing the weary knights in it's wake. By sundown on the second day, they returned to Kells castle to come up with of a better plan.
"It's like this, Cathabad. Every time we get near the creature, Ffftttt!, it's gone." explained Rohan, pantomiming the mouse's swift escape with his hand. The knights were gathered in Cathabad's chamber for a planning session, and Angus was once again on Cathabad's workbench.
"Hmm..." said Cathabad, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Have you tried surrounding it?"
"That didn't work." replied Deirdre. "It always managed to dash past us."
"What we really need, is a giant CAT." said Ivar.
"How 'bout it, Ivar? You want to switch sizes with a cat for a while?" asked Angus.
"But then we'd have to kill the cat." pointed out Deirdre. "And a giant cat would be dangerous to the villagers. It might start hunting them, rather than the mouse."
"Deirdre's right." agreed Rohan, leaning his elbows on Cathabad's workbench. Angus leaned against Rohan's left arm casually, as if it were the trunk of a tree.
"Hey Rohan, maybe you could get Pyre to help us." Angus suggested. Rohan shook his head.
"No, it would just take shelter under the trees, and Pyre might set them afire. -The whole forest could burn."
"Remember the riddle Fin Varra gave us. 'Small as a mouse or big as a horse, nature never leaves it's course'." reminded Ivar.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" griped Angus.
"Well, what's the nature of a mouse?" asked Deirdre.
"Stealing?" suggested Ivar. Angus gave him a dark look.
"Running away, maybe?" said Rohan. Angus snapped his fingers.
"Hiding! When a mouse is in trouble, it runs for it's hole."
"We could trap it in there with nowhere to run to," agreed Deirdre, enthusiastically.
"I doubt the mouse has had time to dig a hole, with the three of us persuing it all this time." pointed out Ivar.
"That's good, though, isn't it?" said Angus. "I mean, how easy would it be to fight in a mousehole? They're not wide enough to swing a weapon, you know."
"And what would you-" began Ivar.
"I've got it! I know how to get this mouse." interrupted Rohan.
"What do you propose?" asked Ivar. It wasn't until the mystic knights had gone out to implement their plan, that Cathabad noticed Angus was gone as well.
The giant mouse paused when it saw Deirdre and Ivar approaching, and tested the breeze, whiskers twitching in time with it's nose. Yup, they smelled the same. The mouse darted off through the grass, outdistancing them yet again. They persued it, Deirdre on the left and Ivar on the right, to keep the mouse going in the direction they wanted it to go. Neither one was armored, because speed was crucial, and the mouse never stood and fought them anyway. They came to a gently sloping hillside, and from overhead there came the hunting-roar of the dragon of Dare. Pyre sprang into the air from his perch on the rocky crest of the hill, with Rohan on his back. They flew over the mouse, nearly within claw-reach of the ground, and Pyre roared again, mightily. The mouse panicked, and scrambled madly up the hillside for cover. Pyre and Rohan came around for another pass, but by then the mouse had spotted a place to hide, and was streaking for the dark mouth of a cave up ahead. Pyre veered off, allowing the mouse to reach the cave unopposed, and enter. Pyre alighted just outside the cave, and allowed Rohan to climb down off his back. Ivar and Deirdre came up just then, and took a minute to catch their breath.
"It- -it worked-" said Deirdre.
"-Well done." agreed Ivar.
"He's all yours, Pyre!" said Rohan. Pyre blew a breath of flame up at the sky, perhaps the dragon equivalent of laughter, and stalked into the caves of Dare after the mouse. Rohan, Deirdre, and Ivar followed their dragon ally into his cave, and blocked the only exit, weapons in hand to prevent the mouse from escaping past them. Pyre peered around the interior of his cave, serpentine neck craning to see the playing field from all angles. He spotted the mouse cowering near the back of his cave, and puffed smoke from his nostrils, advancing at his leisure. The mouse was beginning to run out of cave to retreat into. Pyre lept into the air, and overtook the mouse with two quick beats of his leathery wings, but the mouse darted between Pyre's front feet as he landed, and escaped back into the cave's main chamber. Pyre wheeled around, indignantly, and drew his head back, waiting for a good opening.
"Get him, Pyre!" called the princess. The mouse searched frantically for an exit, but found itself foiled by the three knights blocking it's path to freedom.
"Don't let him past!" yelled Ivar. Rohan shot a fireball at the giant mouse for good measure. The mouse fled, but in a cave with one dragon and no way out, it had run out of options. Pyre smacked the mouse against the cave wall with a surprise swipe of his heavy red tail. The mouse lay stunned on the bone-strewn floor for a second, and in that second, Pyre's fangs flashed in the red-orange light of the cave, as he snapped up his prey.
>Crunch, crunch, -SNAP!- crunch<... Pyre swallowed the mouse with a toss of his massive head, and sat back on his haunches, looking quite pleased with himself. From the floor next to Rohan, Angus returned to his natural size.
"Yes! I'm me again!" exclaimed Angus.
"Yay Pyre!" cheered Deirdre.
"Welcome back, my friend." Rohan clapped Angus on the shoulder.
"Thanks," grinned Angus. Pyre roared victoriously.
"I'm glad to see this situation was resolved in our favor." said Conchobar, surveying his mystic knights, who stood four strong once again. "I doubt Maeve has let the last few days slip by uselessly, however." he added, judiciously.
"You're probably right, king Conchobar." agreed Ivar.
"Whatever she tries next, we'll be ready for her!" boasted Angus.
Cathabad looked at Angus dubiously.
"And where have YOU been? I believe I told you to remain in my chamber, and for excellent reason!"
"I was... um... I was IN your chamber, Cathabad, you just didn't see me."
"Where?"
"Just around." Angus replied, deciding not to reveal the existence of the mousehole.
"Hmph! Would that be why you have mud on your boots?"
"Ummm..."
"As I suspected." smiled Cathabad.
"Uh, Cathabad? I'm not in trouble, am I?- -I mean, I think being stuck at eye level with Aideen for a couple of days was quite enough, you know?" Cathabad smiled and said nothing.
"Uh-oh." muttered Angus.
