Chapter 35½ - Back to the Forest.
The next morning, Gwen and Glynda knocked on the cottage door. There was a lot of banging and clattering as if things were being knocked over, after a short wait, Lynessa appeared, looking very dishevelled at the door.
“Oh, my,” Gwen exclaimed, “what’s happened here?”
There were things knocked over on the floor, books everywhere, a broken vase and a chair on its side.
“I’ve lost my spectacles, and I really am as blind as a bat without them, I keep bumping into things.”
“Can’t Traveon find them?”
“No, I blooming can’t!” came a bad tempered answer from the kitchen, I’ve looked everywhere.”
“I was working on your incantation with my spectacles in me hand and as soon as I put them down, they disappeared, and I can’t remember where I were when I put them down.”
“We’ll come in and help you find them,” Glynda offered.
“Well tread careful, I might have knocked them on the floor.”
Glynda got on her hands and knees and carefully entered the front parlour.
“Where were you sitting?” asked Glynda.
“In me comfy chair, where I always sit, or was I on the sofa? I can’t remember right.”
Glynda headed for the sofa first, she carefully felt on the arms and then on the floor beside the large settee, then underneath, but nothing. She crawled under the sofa at one end and out of the other, nothing. Then she thought, what about the cushions? She carefully raised herself up and started pushing her hand down the side of the cushions, nothing. Then the back, she shoved her hand at the back, it seemed to be going in an awfully long way, she was right up to her shoulder when it happened. She either fell or was pulled right down the back of the sofa. It was quite dark, and she was falling, but slowly, eventually landing on a floor of some sort. She formed a ball of light and floated it up a few feet.
Glynda found herself in a large room. It had no windows, but there was a crack of light in the roof from where she had just fallen. She looked around but did not move. The room had all sorts of stuff in there. There were trunks, a dresser, tin bath, an old-fashioned hatstand complete with old hats, umbrellas and walking sticks, a sewing machine; the old treadle type that you worked with your feet, a stuffed animal of some sort; it might have been a dog, or perhaps a fox. It was covered in so much dust that it was difficult to see, but its eyes seemed to be fixed on Glynda and it was showing its teeth.
She moved the ball of light higher so she could see better, the room went on in all directions until the light faded, it must have been larger than a football pitch, and yet she knew she was down the back of the sofa. There was a large table in one corner with a candelabra sitting on it, with just a thought, Glynda lit the candles. There were candles set all around the room. They all lit at the same time, then the darkness just hid in corners where the light could not reach.
Then she heard a voice.
“Glynda? You in there?” It was Lynessa, “I think she’s fallen into the storeroom that I keep down the back of the sofa.”
As soon as Lynessa opened the crack a bit, all the candles blew out.
Glynda went to move slightly towards the opening in the roof and felt her foot touch something. She looked down but could not see anything, so she bent down, felt around, and picked it up. She couldn’t see it, but it felt like a pair of spectacles.
“I’m down here, and I think I’ve found your glasses.”
“Ooh, then we’d better get you out again,” Lynessa said turning round to announce to the others, “she’s found me specs, they must have dropped down the back of the sofa.”
She turned back to the crack in the roof, Glynda could see her tiny screwed up eyes trying to peer into the void.
“Just float up, we’ll grab you and pull you out again.”
She floated up towards the light and Traveon and Gwen hauled her out of the sofa.
“What was that?” she exclaimed.
“Oh, that’s just me little store cupboard where I keep things.”
“Little! It’s as big as a football pitch, it’s massive.”
“Well, the cottage is quite small, so I has to have somewhere for me trinkets and stuff.”
“But where is it? I crawled under and around the sofa looking for your specs, there is nothing at the back or underneath the sofa.”
“Oh no, it’s not behind the sofa, or even under it, it’s in the sofa. I’ve put a bit of storage space down the back of the sofa. It’s obviously a bit of magic, technically it’s called Hammerspace. It’s where you make a bit of space then magically hammer it into a much smaller space without losing any of the original space if that makes sense.”
“Not really, here are your specs, but for some reason they’re invisible.”
Lynessa restored them to visibility, gave them a clean, then put them on her face. They were thick, proper thick bottle-bottom glasses, as she said, she was as good as blind without them.
“There, once I worked it out, I must have been holding the spectacles, which is why they disappeared. Anyways, I got Traveon here to write it down before I forgets it. So, you holds or wears the sword and say the incantation, then it will disappear. So as you don’t lose it if you takes it off, remember this one as well to make it reappear. Otherwise, once slung on your back, it’s a bit like your wand and staff, just say or think, Dragon Slayer and it will appear in your hand, return it to its home on your back and it vanishes.”
Glynda said the incantation and the sword and scabbard vanished, said the reversing spell and it reappeared. She slung the sword and scabbard onto her back and fastened the straps, said the incantation and the whole lot vanished, sword, scabbard, straps, and all.
She was delighted, she swung her arms around Lynessa and planted a big kiss on her plump rosy cheeks.
“Awwh, don’t be silly, that’s what friends are for, especially girlfriends.”
A little tear appeared in Lynessa’s eye, “Now, be off with you, the pair of you, I’ve got to tidy up the trail of destruction what I made with no spectacles, and thanks for finding them.”
“Can’t we help?” Gwen asked.
“No, it’s my mess, I’ll sort it.”
She then waved her wand and two seconds later everything was back where it should be.
“Well, if you do it like that, you don’t need our help at all,” Gwen said.