Chapter 3: Delusional Departure

The whole place fell silent. Lucy could hear the distant echo of the cheering people who were still celebrating through the cold summer air. She was freezing but didn't move, she was too scared as to who was outside. She knew the person just beyond the door could see her but she couldn't see their face...she wanted to know desperately as to who had come to save her.

Or were they not going to save her? Were they going to pretend to save her and then throw her in Zuc's castle so she could be executed early? Perhaps this was Martyn McGuire or Kingston just trying to fool her. It definitely wasn't Zuc because the person was too short to be Zuc...but they were quite tall.

"Who are you?" Lucy repeated, she was becoming a little scared and worried. She wanted to know who was there, she had to decide whether to attack or let down her guard. At the moment she thought that putting her guard up and attacking the person if they entered her prison cell would be the best option.

The person laughed again, Lucy thought she recognised the voice before she was given her answer. They reached into their pocket and pulled out their wand, they then held it just below their face before uttering 'Lumos.' Then Lucy saw them.

"Me," Shona whispered, her face illuminated by her wand. Lucy's eyes widened in shock, she couldn't believe it. Her best friend had come to save her! She had come to save her from the madness that was the medieval islands! If this wasn't friendship, Lucy didn't know what was.

"Shona!" Lucy gasped. "Oh my goodness! How on earth — ?"

"Yes, I know. You've missed me lots, now come on lets get you out of here," Shona waved Lucy's comment away. Lucy raised an eyebrow and Shona smiled in return. "I'm just kidding! I've come to get you because...well, where do I begin? The gifted isn't the gifted without you, the Resistance can't get here and Snape's a mess."

"We have to get home, I can't have him worrying any longer," Lucy panicked.

"Indeed, Rapunzel, but first we've got to get you out of the prison cell. What to do, what to do..." Shona paced for a minute. "I could use a paperclip, I could find the key in one of the guards pockets I could — BOMBARDA!"

Lucy squealed as the door blew off of it's hinges, debris sprayed everywhere and Lucy coughed because of the dust. She waved her hand to try and clear some of it and in the next moment Shona was inside the prison cell.

"Huh, I'd have thought you'd have looked worse than you do now, Zuc's obviously been kind," Shona shrugged as she walked towards the wall where Lucy's chains were hooked.

Lucy coughed. "No, they healed me a bit today as I went to go and see Zuc. I got hurt afterwards too but I'm fine."

"I stand corrected," Shona muttered as she took out her wand, muttered a few spells and Lucy's chains were released from the walls.

"Well that was lucky..."

"What do you mean?"

"There was dark magic on those chains earlier, good thing the guard forgot about using more on the chains when he dragged me back from Zuc's castle."

"These medieval people are just too dumb..." Shona whipped out a paperclip and held onto one of Lucy's wrists as she began attempting to un-lock one of the shackles.

"What is it with you and paperclips?" Lucy laughed, it would be one object that Shona always carried and it always served her well.

"You never know when you're going to need a paperclip," Shona replied smartly as she finished un-doing Lucy's shackles. "Alright, you're good to go. Ready to get out of your tower, Rapunzel?"

"Stop calling me that!"

They walked out of Lucy's prison cell, made sure the coast was clear before making their way down the steps which would lead to the first floor of challenges. Of course, Lucy had never tried these challenges before because the guards had a special route which had lots of doors which Shona wouldn't be able to un-do with her paperclip or her wand.

"So why is that dragon in a rage?" Lucy asked as she heard the dragon from downstairs give another mighty roar.

"Oh, earlier when you were sent back up from Zuc's castle I kind of...may of...been in sight of the dragon and it started having a fit. I had to hide until I saw that guard coming down to do whatever he was doing. He saw me and tried to chase me and Benedict ate him."

"Benedict?" Lucy questioned.

"Don't deny it, that's a cool name for a dragon.

"Well if you — woah!"

Shona had held out an arm for Lucy to stop just in time just before she fell down a deep hole that led to goodness knows what. Lucy gulped and stepped back a few paces, she suddenly felt a lot of vertigo flood over her.

"Your mission!" Shona called. "If you choose to accept it...is to jump on those little pieces of stone and not die in the process while I hum the mission impossible theme tune!"

"Are you crazy?!"

"Do you want to see Stephano again?"

"Yes."

"Well get hopping! This is the only way you're going to get out!"

Lucy nodded in fear and then stood on the edge again. Shona watched cautiously as she began humming the mission impossible theme tune to herself. Lucy blocked out Shona's humming and then leaped towards the first platform, she held her breath and held out her arms for balance at the same time.

"Woo-hoo! Go, Lucky!" Shona cheered. "Only six more stones to go! Hardly any at all if you think about it!"

"Oh keep quiet! I could fall off any minute if you keep distracting me!" Lucy snapped, she really wasn't in the mood for falling down a deep black hole.

"Well sorry, Miss Moody! Now keep going! I want to test my skills on those things too when you're done!"

Lucy groaned. "Why did you make me go first?"

"Because...because..." Shona bit her lip. "Just keep moving, you damsel in distress!"

Lucy didn't say anything as she scaled the next platform, one wrong move and she'd fall down the hole and would never be seen again. Lucy pushed all her fears to the back of her mind as she jumped onto the next stone.

"I'd move a bit quicker than that," Shona warned. "Because the longer you're on a platform the more likely is to break."

"Alright," Lucy called back to her friend then jumped to the next platform...they were becoming further and further apart. It was really nerve wracking to Lucy as she didn't want to fall off the platforms because she only had one chance at this, if she failed she would die.

It was only when Shona called to her she realised just how far she was. "You're on the last one! Just jump to the other side and you'll be OK! But I'd do it quick though, that platform is in danger of falling!"

Lucy looked down and saw the platform was beginning to crumble underneath her feet, so she jumped as far as she could and in the next moment she was on the other side. Shona cheered because of her success and Lucy bowed.

"Your turn now!" Lucy called and Shona gave a quick thumbs up before jumping onto the first platform, then the second one, then the third...in fact Shona moved so quickly she was on the seventh platform in no time.

"And that, Lucky, is how you make your way across these — " Shona was about to finish when the final platform crumbled beneath her feet.

"Shona!" Lucy screamed in panic. That was it, Shona was gone. Lucy would have to make her way out of the tower alone because she had stood on the seventh platform too long which had weakened it for Shona...

Suddenly one hand gripped the edge of the surface Lucy had made it to. Then another hand appeared by the side of it and then Shona's head popped up as well. She waved at Lucy with one hand.

"As I was saying, that is how you make your way across these platforms the McGuire way," Shona gave a quick salute before Lucy pulled her up to safety.

"Do it a little more safely, the McGuire way doesn't seem safe to me," Lucy accused as Shona brushed herself off.

"Sorry, little miss perfect," Shona stuck out her tongue childishly.

"Come on, lets go," Lucy demanded.

Shona led the way to the next challenge that the tower had to offer, and the roars of Benedict the dragon (if that was what he was called) were even more clearer now. Lucy just hoped that the dragon wouldn't eat her or Shona when they made it to his floor.

"So what's the next challenge, Commander McGuire?" Lucy asked her companion as they made it to the next floor.

Shona looked around the next floor and studied it, there before them was like a giant obstacle course which offered a lot of different stages...some involved getting stabbed in the face. Shona stepped forward to the first stage in which was walking across a thin platform which led to stage two. 

"Allow me to demonstrate," Shona said as she gave the thin platform a poke with her foot to see if it was sturdy. She decided it would have to do and so stepped onto it. "First you will walk across this which shouldn't be too hard after those little stepping stones we jumped onto — " Shona hopped gracefully onto the other side when she was near enough. 

"Then what?" Lucy asked as she made her way across the thin platform herself, catching up with Shona who was sizing up the next course like it was an enemy. 

The next course involved using your quick reflexes; you had to dodge the spears that would try and stab you every now and then. Of course, the spears had no continuous pattern and would come out without warning...Lucy suddenly wished her reflexes were sharper. 

"Well in this course I guess you just — " Shona took out Merlin's walking stick suddenly and tapped it. When Lucy blinked Shona was on the other side. "Use the walking stick!" 

"Well how am I supposed to get across?" Lucy frowned. 

"Here, catch it!" Shona threw the walking stick and Lucy caught it clumsily. She tapped it on the ground and began walking through the spears which were frozen in time, she had to step over them and duck until she made it to the other side. She tapped the walking stick again and time had resumed as normal. 

"Now what?" Lucy raised an eyebrow as Shona took the walking stick back and walked onto the final part of the so called obstacle course. 

"Oh now you've got to avoid these throwing knives, we're going to do it without the walking stick this time because this should be fun. YOU GO FIRST!" Shona shoved Lucy forward and she ducked just in time to avoid a throwing knife. 

"Shona! Why did you do that?" Lucy demanded as she had to duck again because of another throwing knife. 

"I'm sorry that was mean..." Shona stepped forward, reached into her pocket and pulled out something. "Here, take your wand — " Shona threw Lucy's wand at her, she caught it with a scowl on her face. 

"You had this the whole time and you didn't give it to me up in the tower?" 

"Hey, you should learn to fight the muggle way you know! You never know when you're going to be deprived of your wand! Zuc could come along and take it and think it was a nice object to use as a back scratcher and what would you do then?" 

"That's disgusting..." Lucy rolled her eyes as she made her way through the throwing knives course, using spells as she went until she successfully made it onto the other side. Shona followed suit but she used Merlin's walking stick to cheat a little bit, Lucy couldn't believe Shona sometimes...

They slowly made their way down to the other floors, enduring all the other activities. One even included a rope swinging course which Shona got a little too excited about...she grabbed hold of a rope and claimed she was Tarzan while Lucy stood there with an expression that said it all. 

"Wow...that was exhausting," Shona wiped the sweat off of her brow as they finished the ropes course and made their way down to the final course. 

"It wasn't so bad, I haven't been allowed out of that tower much and it's been quite good to get some kind of fresh air," Lucy shrugged as the winding staircase became a little steeper. 

"Yeah well, McGuire's don't belong on the medieval islands..." 

"And neither do I! I didn't go up to Zuc and say: 'oh please, Mr Zuc! Let me stay in one of your fine prison cells this summer! I've been meaning to get away from Spinners end anyway...'" 

"So how exactly did he capture you?" Shona wondered out loud. 

And so Lucy explained how she had gone to go and buy some sweets from the trolley when she had encountered Zuc. How he had then captured her and kept her hostage in the tower they were in at this moment in time. Shona seemed a little startled. 

"Thank Merlin I took the normal train..." Shona gulped. "Wouldn't really want to see him there when I was walking past a compartment." 

"But I didn't know it was him, I had just assumed he was a stranger. It just seemed weird that there was someone else on the train when me and dad were supposed to be the only one's on there...apart from the driver of course." 

"Sneaky so and so isn't he?" Shona laughed to herself as they made it to the bottom of the stairs. But then her amused laughter turned into nervous laughter. 

"What? What is it?" Lucy frowned. 

Shona continued her nervous laughter and then pointed upwards. Lucy followed her finger and was quite shocked to see the dragon standing there...had they made it that far already? Lucy was terrified, she felt like running straight back up to her tower. She'd prefer to be executed than being eaten by a dragon. 

"Benedict! My old friend! How's it going? Did you enjoy the guard that you ate?" Shona asked the dragon. It breathed heavily as it watched her with intense eyes, it was surely going to strike at any minute. 

"Keep quiet!" Lucy hissed. "You're just making him angry!"

"I make Snivels angry, it's not as though there's any difference!" 

The dragon let out a huge roar causing the whole floor to shake. The two girls looked at each other in shock. 

"Except this one has bad breath!" Lucy pulled a face. 

"You got that right..." Shona muttered darkly but then she aimed her wand at the dragon. "Oi! Benedict! You think your bad breath is going to be enough to kill us?" 

Lucy shuddered. "Yes." 

"Well it's not going to! Take this you ugly scaled creature — expelliarmus!" The spell hit the dragon in the face, it recoiled in pain. But it didn't stun it for long. It let out another roar and threw Shona off of her feet with his tail. 

"Touché," Shona groaned. 

The dragon advanced on Lucy this time and Lucy swore it was glaring at her, if dragons could glare of course. It stepped towards her, Lucy pointed her wand at it but it didn't seem to take any notice. It was trapping her in the corner...if only she had her broomstick with her like in the tri wizard tournament. 

"Do something, Shona!" Lucy cringed, she was out of sight now as the dragon had unfolded it's wings and had trapped her completely. "Say something to distract it!" 

"ROAR!" Shona screamed, distracting the dragon once again. It turned around, knocking Lucy over this time with it's tail. "Well that went well..." 

"What do we do?" Lucy panicked. 

"In case of big dragon trying to attack you..." Shona whispered. "RUN FOR YOUR DAMN SORRY LIFE!"

But Lucy was still trapped because of the dragon, Shona had left the room and was no doubt heading to the next level. She must have thought Lucy had found an escape route, how wrong she was...

"I'm sorry, Mr. Benedict," Lucy cringed as she climbed onto the back of the dragon and made her way across him to get to the exit. "You've been a wonderful dragon but I've really got to go," she muttered and hopped off of his head. 

The dragon roared in anger as Lucy exited the room and made her way down to the final floor. She found Shona battling it out with a group of guards who had obviously discovered the intruder. Lucy had to go and help but what would the guards do if they found out she had escaped?

"Get back you Zuc followers!" Shona roared and fired spells at them as quick as she could. She had Merlin's walking stick out and was (presumably) tapping it every now and then to knock out the guards when they got too much. 

"GOT YOU!" A guard screamed from behind Lucy as he grabbed hold of her and began dragging her back to her prison cell. 

"Expelliarmus!" Lucy squeaked at him and he released her in an instant. Unfortunately, this attracted the attention of the other guards. 

"SHE'S ESCAPING!" The guard who had caught her yelled as Lucy ran towards the exit. 

"Run, Lucy!" Shona encouraged as Lucy reached the door. But she didn't leave, she had changer her mind. The guards went for her and she fought like she should, she even decided to throw a few punches at them after ripping off their helmets for full impact. 

She dived out of the way when they tried to attack her with their sword and even snatched a sword off of one of the unconscious guards to make it easier for fighting. Shona watched in amazement as Lucy began taking out all of the guards until she was left down to the last one. 

She approached him as he quaked in his boots, she held onto the sword and glared at him. He looked at her worriedly through his helmet before Lucy ripped it off and knocked him out with a punch. 

"Woah..." Shona gasped. "I guess this is what happens when we lock Merlin's descendant in a tower for most of the summer; she fights like a well...what can I say? That was amazing!" 

"Thanks, but I should be praising you," Lucy laughed. "You took out most of them." 

"Oh it was nothing really, just the way I used to fight bullies at muggle school when they annoyed me," Shona admired her fingernails. "I think it's best we get out of here now — " 

"Wait!" Lucy ordered, Shona stopped in her tracks. 

"What is it? Don't tell me you like it here now and want to stay in Zuc's company for longer," Shona groaned. "What a wasted trip to get here!"

"No. I know where Zuc's hidden Merlin's sword and I want to get it back before we leave." 

"Great! Where is it?" 

"In Zuc's castle." 

"No way, no how." 

"Oh come on! We can't leave without it!" 

"Alright, fine, we'll go and get it," Shona rolled her eyes. "But I don't think we look the part at the minute." 

"What are you suggesting?" 

Shona glanced down at one of the knocked out guards and Lucy knew exactly what she was thinking in that mind of hers. 

*      *      *

"Afternoon!" 

"Afternoon..." 

Lucy and Shona walked through the streets in their guard uniform in broad day light. It was rather to awkward to walk along in armour which was far too big for them and was very heavy too. The uniform didn't just have the basics, it had a whole range of weapons too; the sword being the heaviest. 

"Do we have to wear these guard uniforms?" Lucy groaned but then smiled at a passer by who bowed at her just because she was in a guard uniform. 

Shona waved to a passer by. "Do you want to get killed?" 

"No." 

"Then quit your whining, it's these heavy uniforms or death. I think I'd prefer the heavy uniforms, wouldn't you?" 

"Good point." 

They slowly made their way up to Zuc's castle and they were almost there when Lucy dragged Shona down an alley way. She had to tell her the plan to get to the sword before they actually went in there and got on with it without any plan. 

"We've got to act natural when we get in there, like the guards would. Just bow to Zuc or Kingston if they come out — " Lucy began but Shona interrupted. 

"I'm not bowing to that scum," Shona scoffed. 

"Stick with the plan already!" Lucy barked and Shona fell silent. "The sword is hidden in one of the drawing rooms, I know where it is and you've just got to follow me. We'll just pretend we've gone to talk to Zuc if any of the guards ask. When we're there, I'll grab the sword and we'll get off of the medieval islands," Lucy finished her plan but then she frowned. "How did you get onto the medieval islands, anyway?" 

"The portal," Shona shrugged as though it was obvious. "I brought the orb with me and I memorised that little saying Zuc made you say to open the portal. Turns out once you've said the funny Latin words you don't have to say them again, you can just open the portal at will, even without the orb." 

"Sounds good, we can get out of here without worry then." 

"OK, lets go." 

The two of them walked out of the alley way and towards Zuc's castle. There were guards surrounding the place like loyal dogs, not wanting anyone to go in there unless authorised. It was just lucky that Shona had thought about wearing the guards uniform, you could hardly see any part of someones face apart from their eyes if you had the helmet on. 

Lucy and Shona approached the guards blocking the entrance to Zuc's castle. They didn't look too wary because of Lucy and Shona's uniform but one of them still approached the two. 

"What business do you have here?" He asked, looking them up and down. 

"We're here to speak to Zuc," Shona put on a deep voice causing Lucy to almost burst out laughing, but she hid her laughter because otherwise they would never be able to go into the castle. 

"About what, I might ask?" 

That threw Shona off guard. "Um..." she turned to Lucy for some help and so Lucy spoke up. 

"That's classified information," Lucy muttered in the deepest voice she could manage. 

The guard still looked suspicious. "Very well, you may enter." 

The guards who were in front of the door stepped aside for the two of them and opened the vast doors. They walked inside and the doors were closed behind them. There was no sign of Zuc or Kingston so Lucy and Shona were free to snoop around. 

"Follow me," Lucy whispered and she led the way to the drawing room that she had been in earlier. It wasn't much of a challenge to find it again but getting in was the trouble. "It's locked." 

"No trouble for McGuire," Shona laughed and pulled out her paperclip again. She rammed it in the lock and wiggled it about before the door was open and so they both walked inside. "Where is it then?" Shona questioned when she had closed the door behind her. 

"Up there," Lucy pointed to the top of the tallest bookshelf. "There's a force surrounding it and if you touch it guards run in." 

"You better take the walking stick with you in case when you get rid of the force the guards run in anyway, stopping time will be easier so you can grab hold of it even if guards do run in and try to stop you." Shona handed her friend the walking stick and Lucy took it with thanks. 

She put the walking stick in the place where the sword should go after she'd chucked it out, then began climbing the bookshelf. Shona watched as Lucy made it all the way to the top slowly and noticed some claw marks on the shelves, she thought Lucy must have decided to get it earlier but failed because of Kingston. 

"Tell me when you're going to freeze time, OK?" Shona called as Lucy made it to the top. 

"Why should I tell you?" Lucy frowned. 

"Because I'm going to be kind of surprised when I blink and you're right in front of me again." 

"Oh fine, whatever you say..." 

Lucy un-did the first force with her wand that she had been able to break with her body earlier and then made her way over to the sword. She turned around and looked down at Shona who was still watching from below. 

"I'm going to freeze time now." 

"Go for it." 

Lucy tapped the walking stick and time was frozen. She un-did the force which was in front of the sword and then grabbed hold of the sword itself. As soon as it was in her hand she felt a shiver send down her spine...it was great having her sword back. 

Lucy slowly climbed down the bookcase and when she had made it she tapped the walking stick. No alarms went off and all seemed well. She handed the walking stick back to Shona and placed Merlin's (or as it was supposed to be known, Sebastian's) sword where she had placed the walking stick moments ago. 

"I think we're definitely ready to get out of here now," Shona announced. The two of them headed towards the door when it opened, revealing Zuc and Kingston. 

'Oopsies...' Shona thought. 

'Just bow to them, just like I told you, then we can get out of here,' Lucy thought back. 

"Guards," Zuc frowned. "What business do you have here?" 

"We were checking the area was safe," Shona replied in her deep voice. Lucy's hair turned purple because of her nerves. 

"Very well, you may leave as I think the area was perfectly safe," Zuc nodded, although he looked quizzical. 

"Indeed," Shona bowed and in that moment her helmet fell off. 

They were done for. 

"It's - it's the McGuire girl!" Kingston stuttered as thoughts raced around his head. But soon enough he discovered why she was here. He stalked over to Lucy and ripped off her helmet. "Lucy Snape!" He gasped. 

"Well, it was nice seeing you guys," Shona laughed. "Hope we'll see you again soon..." she backed slowly towards the door, Lucy following. "But we've got things to do! People to see! Stephano's to beat up! It's lovely for you to have us but we've got to go," Shona glanced at Lucy. "RUN!" 

They ran as quick as they could, Kingston following after them. They avoided Zuc trying to grab them and made their way out of the castle. 

"GUARDS!" Kingston screamed. "STOP THEM!" 

"Not on my watch, Kingston," Shona muttered as they began racing through the streets of the medieval islands. 

Guards were following their every step, Kingston too. They had to get off of the medieval islands as quick as possible and by doing that they had to open the portal. But they had to make sure no person that lived there got into the portal because otherwise that would cause serious trouble...

 "What do we do?!" Lucy called over the wind. 

"We get that portal open!" Shona called back. 

"Where?" 

"Here!" 

Shona grabbed hold of Lucy and ran down an alley way. Luckily they were too far ahead of the guards and Kingston and got down there un-noticed. They lent against the wall as the guards ran past with Kingston and then Shona pepared herself to get the portal open.

She thought about the portal opening and closed her eyes, in the next minute the portal back to England appeared in front of her. Shona looked very pleased with herself.

"You first, Rapunzel," Shona gestured towards the portal. 

"What have I said about calling me that?" 

"Oh I'm sorry, what I meant to say was brunette Rapunzel. Now would you hurry up? This place creeps me out." 

"You weren't the one stuck on it for most of the summer!" 

"Hurry up!" Shona barked and shoved Lucy through the portal and then jumped through it herself. 

When Lucy opened her eyes she saw that she was just outside of the estate of Spinners end. She gasped. She was home, her father wasn't that far away and she would be in his arms any minute now. It was all too good to be true. 

In the next minute Shona had made it out of the portal, she stood in front of it then closed it. Next, she hauled up Lucy from where she was on the floor. Lucy's hair returned to it's original colour; she was safe now. 

"OK, lets get out of this guard uniform then you can go see Stepahno," Shona groaned and began taking the dreaded uniform off. 

As soon as they had taken the uniform off they found themselves back in their usual clothes. Lucy grabbed hold of Merlin's sword from the uniform she had been wearing and then she looked at Shona. 

"You ready to see your dad?" She asked. 

Lucy nodded. "Definitely."