LOST IN THE WARLOCK DUNGEONS

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

I had never been lost so many times in a day. #ihatewarlockland.

"Sam? Didn't we pass here already?" Of all people, it was River who noticed it first.

I looked about, all the cells looked alike after a while, so how would I know?

I looked at Ben who was the genius with unfailing memory, "Have we?"

Ben shrugged, "It'll explain why we've been walking for the past twenty minutes."

"Another illusion?" Torque bemoaned.

That was weird, I didn't sense any trap, and I was quite sure we've been only walking in a single direction, so I'm not sure how this was entirely possible. But here we were, walking and walking... Down what seemed to be a never-ending passageway of identical prison cells.

How much dungeon did a warlock need?

"Actually, I thought there was a shift in the magic just now..." River mumbled.

Then why didn't you say anything until now? Grrr...

Ben stepped forward, "Alright, stand back. If this is another one of those loops, I'll just break it."

Ben had been acting macho since he regained conscious. I had no idea why. Just because he got himself a bit of stubble now. Stoopid Ben.

Ben drew back his arm and punched the space in front of us. There was a sound, like "Boom!" and a vortex of air that sucked the still air forwards and I forgot that Ben was stoopid.

My hair swayed forwards and then fell back again. My eyes widened at the sensation, "Do it again Ben!"

"Why?" Ben asked, but he obligingly drew back his arm and punched again.

"Boom!" The air vortex opened and closed again.

"That was so cool!" I declared completely revising my opinion of Ben, "Ben you're the coolest!"

Ben blinked, and then he did a face palm a la my own mum, "Geesh, Sam! Be serious. I thought you were on to something."

"So that means..." Barry was trying to figure it out, "Are we still trapped?"

Barry was still faithfully carrying EJ, who was seriously out like a light. He didn't even stir at the two Booms.

But yes. Essentially, the two booms hadn't made any difference to our situation. It was just cool.

"We can now rule out the possibility of being trapped in another looped or modified space-time continuum." Ink deduced.

"So are we trapped or not trapped?" Barry tried to make sense of it.

"Maybe we are trapped but not trapped." Fluffy offered with his usual smile - the one he wore in school when he was having fun being unhelpful.

"That is only one of the many possibilities." Ink pushed up his spectacles, it gleamed under the unnatural lighting, "Given the range and permutations of the Warlock's powers, it would be impossible to define exactly what the Warlock had done with the data we currently have. We might have to run a few experiments..."

"Could it just be that we are in a very large dungeon?" Barry cut him off hopefully.

Which was my initial guess too, but now I shook my head, "That wouldn't explain how all the cells from earlier had disappeared."

"I also find it strange." Wilhelm concurred, "The earlier cells were of different sizes and arranged in random angles, but right now..."

We all stopped now to look around. Wilhelm's observation was unrefutable. The earlier cells were set against each other in angles and were of different sizes with only a narrow and uneven corridor between them. For example, I remembered there was a distinct corner to go around between the larger cell that that the special team were detained in and the smaller reinforced one that Ben was kept at.

Now we were in a rather wide corridor, wide enough for even Torque to feel comfortable despite the fact that our corridor was still wedged between two very uniformed and straight rows of prison cells.

When I looked back to where we came from, it was also the same wide and very uniformed corridor lined with metal bars and prison cells behind them, all looking and smelling unused and exactly the same.

What scocery was this? And this time I was quite sure it was some kind of scocery. Warlock scocery. We might not be in a trap, or time loop, or illusion or whatever Ben's punch could break, but the warlock had definitely made some kind of move.

"Maybe we should backtrack." Keanu suggested, "If we get back to the earlier cells, there is a chance that our entrance might be still there."

Eh, wait! What did Keanu mean by "might be still there?" Could the entrance be moved?

"Besides the flow of time, warlocks can rearrange space at will." Keanu divulged.

"Oh!" River remembered, "Like the time I accidentally rearranged the Ice Heart Palace..."

And by rearrange, I guess River didn't mean just the furniture.

"It has never been quite the same since." Keanu agreed, "But these powers, coupled with the ability to create illusions can be pretty tricky to deal with."

Oh, so that's why the warlock didn't run down himself! Why should he when he could simply rearrange the time and space around us with a twist of this magic?

And that really would explain why we were walking without any end of prison cells in sight.

"The magic moved again!" River called out and pointed back where we came from, "It's going that way!"

What? Where? We all froze and looked behind us, but everything looked exactly as it was. For all we knew, River could just be pranking us.

Torque punched out at the nearest stone pillar between two cells suddenly, "Arugghhhhh I just want out!!!"

Ki patted the large man on his back, "Hai, hai, big guy. We're nearly out."

But Ki was lying.

"Big guy like you, won't you feel ashamed if you embarrassed yourself in front of our pretty alpha?" Fluffy beamed.

"Who's going to do that?" Torque yelled back, his face reddening.

"Hai, hai," Ki sighed again, "Good children shouldn't fight."

This side of Ki, that spoke carelessly, I had never seen before. It was pretty interesting.

"But Keys..." Barry worried, "Is this really alright?"

"Do you think our alpha will lead aimlessly without a plan?" Ki asked, his smile like a flower to the sun.

Well, essentially that was exactly what was happening.

"N...no, of course not!" Barry quickly answered, "Alpha must have her own idea."

"Since you understand..." Ki demurred.

My betas had other faces... I had known this, but it still felt weird to see it.

"Ki?" I called his name aloud before I realized it.

"Yes, goddess?" Ki spun around, suddenly bright and airy again. I blinked and looked at the others. No one looked in anyway surprised by the personality change.

"Ah, no, it's nothing." I mumbled.

I took a peek at Ben. He was frowning into the space ahead, "I hate this place."

Yeah, welcome to the warlock land. #ihatewarlockland.

But Ben was specifically talking about our walkabout in the warlock dungeons.

We were no longer stuck in a cell, but we were still trapped in the dungeons. Nobody was going to die walking around but how long would this continue before something more dangerous came along? Or worse, we ended up walking around forever! Omo

"Sam, think aloud." Ben's arms were folded behind me.

"I think I've been going about this all wrong." I answered honestly, "I was focused on getting out of here, but I should've been focused on getting to Fount."

You know, like what they say, the best defence is the offence.

I took a moment to get my bearings with this new goal in mind, lucky direction felt it was better to backtrack, "Okay, follow me."

So naturally, they followed me. I know I was the alpha, but that surprised me. I was expecting someone to complain since we were back tracking.

Anyway, they followed me, and I led them to someplace that looked exactly like everywhere else we had been and announced, "We break out here."

"Break out where, Sam?" Ben wanted to know.

I pointed directly above my head, "We're going up."

"Eh?!?!" River exclaimed, "Can we really do that?"

"Understood." Ben smirked and punched his fist into his opened hand, "You better move aside. Some of you guys come and help. Barry, put Red down."

"Ah... Yes, beta." Barry looked haplessly around.

"Ssssshhhh..." Cobra stepped up.

"Thanks bro." Barry thankfully passed EJ to Cobra.

"Come, goddess," Ki smiled blandly, "it might get messy here."

I let him lead me to the side too. Cobra followed silently with EJ slung casually over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

Wilhelm quickly ushered River and Keanu over to join us. I guess he figured wherever they were gonna keep the Alpha Princess and single unconscious wolf would be the safest place to stand.

Yes, I had been ranked as useful as an unconscious wolf for this operation.

"Alright." Ben took charge because he was Mr Bossy Pants, "Torque, smash the wall. Barry and Ink, stack the rocks up so I can reach the ceiling."

"Beta, do be careful not to tear open your wound." Ki cautioned from next to me.

"Shut up, dog." Ben growled back.

The demolition crew got to work. It was loud and surprisingly dusty. I'm not sure where all the dust came from. They fell like pixie dust all around us.

Ki took out my cape and dropped it over my head because it was a beta's job to protect me from dirt. Whatever, I had no mood to argue about wardrobe right now.

When Barry and Ink stacked up enough rocks, Ben climbed up and punched upwards. One punch and the light broke through from above us.

"Cobra, recon." Ben ordered, as he hopped down from his pedestal. He was covered with dirt and pieces of debris. Technically, shouldn't he be the one to wear the cape?

"F***, my eye." Ben grumbled. (Nevermind the cape. Next adventure, we'd equip him with safety goggles.)

I moved forward to check on Ben, "Did something get in?"

"Scary beta, do you want me to blow it out?" Fluffy offered with his beautiful smile.

"Don't touch me, dog." Ben growled.

I pulled Ben's hand off his eye, "Let me see."

"Don't fuss, Sam." Ben turned his face away, "It's fine now."

Ki offered a clean handkerchief.

"Keep it, dog." Ben waved it off, "I'm fine."

Fine. You be Mr Tough Guy.

Cobra returned from his recon, "Reporting. Ssssshhhh...."

Oh wait! Where was EJ? I looked around and spotted him being fireman-lifted over Torque's shoulders again. Oh good. Nobody got left behind.

But everybody did look tired and dusty - like survivors from some catastrophe, although most of the catastrophe was us smashing up rocks.

Ben glanced at me, and then back at Cobra, "Report."

Opps. Was that my cue? I supposed as Alpha, Cobra was waiting for my order to report. Oh well, Ben did it for me.

"I think there is a tower... or something... right above us. The ground floor is unmanned." Cobra reported.

Oh! I brightened up. Lucky! That was our next stop, "Let's go see the warlock!"

And just for the fun of it, I broke out in song again, "We're off to see the warlock! The wonderful warlock of Oz."

Ben grunted under his breath and made a face because he hated it when I made up dumb songs like a homemade musical, but that just made it more fun for me.

I climbed up the rocky pedestal. It was quite a jump up. Barry boosted Cobra back out first, and then Ben and Fluffy.

"Me!" I ordered, annoyed at being ignored for the boost up.

"But it could be dangerous, alpha!" Barry protested, "Let us guys suss it first."

"It's fine." Ben popped his head back in from above us, "There's no one here. Throw her up, Barry."