I'll Be Dog-Gone (5)

KaraS and Sweetiepie sat at the table and had tea with Mary Poppins. She was a rebel about many things, But Mary DID take her tea seriously.

Kara sighed. "The dogs. We are looking for homes for Sixth's dogs. Large, not very well trained dogs I'm afraid. But they have good hearts, all of them. What they need is a firm but loving hand. I thought of you right off."

"Who is this fruitcake?" Sweetiepie stage whispered. When Sweetiepie didn't like someone he made no attempt to be subtle about it. And he and Mary Poppins had just enough in common to rub eachother the wrong way immediately.

"There IS someone I know who might want a dog." she said at last. "Mary Mary Quite Contrary needs someone to help her with her sheep. Are any of the dogs sheep herders?"

Ragnar moved a couple of feet foreward and peered into the pit. When in Disney he murmered....Well what do you expect, there aren't any pies handy!

Quickly he began reconstructing the cover to make it match the surrounding grounds. When the pit had been dug he had made it deep enough to catch a wildboar, after all that was his original target. Of course upon realizing its potential he had come back in passing years and dug it deeper. The walls were smooth and steep, almost fifteen feet deep too!

It stretched all the way across the path, before a set of trees and in a little clearing where people would instinctively gather. He really wasn't on the path to the cove any longer but he was in familiar territory and deffinately knew his way back. His followers conviently followed along.

In a few moments he was done and inspected his handiwork. The bottom of the pit had looked muddy so whoever fell in shouldn't hurt themselves too bad...but then his friends would likely walk right up and talk to him sooo....

Across the Disney landscape Chryse, Jila, and Viridian were making their way along in search of a home for the dogs....very determined these ladies, brings a smile to the old weathered face!

6th opened her mouth to reply, when she felt the land underneath her feet give way. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, and she fell down and fast, crying out as she went.

Drum skidded to a halt at the edge of the pit. He was as shocked as 6th was when the pit opened up and she fell in. He hoped sincerely it wasn't the kind of pit with spikes at the bottom. "6th?" he called shakily, peering over the edge.

"Drumheller, get me outta here!" 6th yelled up to him. She sat on the floor of the pit, mud covering her from head to toe. Scraping mud out of her eyes, she peered up at the wizard. He looked about ready to laugh, but concern for her was the only thing holding it back.

6th looked down at herself. She was muddy, filthy and brown. but the only thing hurt was her pride. *I should have seen that coming! Well, at least I won't have to worry about my clothes giving me away* she thought, and began to laugh.

Drum thought for a second then tried a minor shape-changing spell on a nearby vine. He was going for a rope, what he got was 20 feet of licorice. He shrugged and tossed one end of licorice down to 6th.

"Best I could do!" Drum said, grunting slightly as 6th pulled herslef up the rope. She climbed to the top, and lay on the ground to rest a second. Drum sat beside her, but not too close, she WAS muddy. 6th scraped mud off of her face, then ran her hands over her hair, tendrils laying in ropes on her head.

"Possibly..." 6th said. "He probably knows someone's following him. Just not us. Maybe we should let him know it IS us, so the next bend in the path we go around, we don't step into anything more dangerous than a mud pit..."

Drum took up the call, "Ragnar, it's just 6th and me! Let us know where you are so we can find you!" he turned to 6th, "Maybe he doesn't want us to find him!" he said.

Artist returns to the boat, to find it wallowing low in the water. The dogs are howling in panic below decks and brooms are moving across the deck, deluging the deck with buckets of water. Rae moans and writhes in the crow's nest.

Artist sloshes across the deck and quickly climbs the rigging to the crow's nest. Rae lays curled up and twitching, her hands making magical gestures - she moans in her sleep - dreamlocked.

Artist's illusions are no match for Rae's sorcery - he has to take another tack. He removes an ampuole from his tuxedo - a rare potion - he quaffs it, lays down next to Rae, bringing her into his arms, pressing his forehead against hers and falling into a deep sleep - entering her dream.

As he suspected, Rae is dreaming that she is the Sorcerer's Apprentice, marshalling powers beyond her control. He enters her dream as the Sorcerer, then switches perspective - becoming the apprentice as she becomes the Sorceress - marshalling the cosmic powers to expell the water from the boat.

The spell broken, Rae and Artist drift into normal sleep, wandering through each other's dreams and memories until the potion wears off. They learn many interesting and bizarre things about each other...

surrounded by a gaggle of rag-tag children. They were clean, but their clothes were worn and had many patches. They peered at the trio silently. Mothers that they were, Chryse and Jila immediately went over to the children to inquire where their parents were and could they do something for them? Viridian hung back, puzzling over why the kids seemed somehow familar. Then the smallest of the children, a little girl, marched over to Viridian and solemnly raised a finger at her.

Chryse and Jila gaped at their friend. Vi, totally confused, looked around to see who the child was refering to. There was no one there.

Astonished, Viridian was speechless. She knelt down and stared at the girl while her friends gathered around her. the child touched Vi's forehead with her finger. "You were one of us," the child stated. "You have come back. Peter isn't here. You be our mom now."

Sweetiepie leaned over, as close to their ears as he could get and let out a terrible shriek. (And anyone who knows about parrots knows they can be LOUD when they want to be.)

"AARRGGHH!!!" Artist and Rae yelled in unison as they woke up with a start. Sleeping so close together, they got tangled up and nearly fell out of the crows nest.

"Well get ready for visitors." Sweetiepie said. "Mary Poppins'll be here in about two minutes and she won't be amused to find you two curled up like peas in a pod."

"Don't fall asleep in the crow's nest with any of the girls again and I won't have to." Sweetiepie said. Then he flew back to meet Kara and Mary Poppins.

"Hey, come on, all of youse. Back to the treehouse. We're hungry!" demanded on of the boys. All the children grabbed onto a piece of clothing on all 3 ladies and started tugging them to the treehouse in Never Never Land. Not wanting to hurt the kids, all 3 complied and walked along with the kids.

Before they knew it, they were all back at the treehouse. Viridian's memory was still flooding back to her and she was excitedly looking around and investigating her former home. The kids gave a her teeny break and let her exclaim about the place and reminsce about her time here. Jila and Chryse weren't so lucky, they had to start on dinner immediately.

Inside the foyer of the old building and watched as the small mob of wannabe scientist, complete in their regalia of scientific test equipment, scurried by out side. She breathed an inward sigh. Geeze, who invited the ghost busters to Disney? Just what she needed.!

Sticking an etherreal head out, she made sure they were safely on their way. Those reactor things tingled. She even felt a bit more transparent than usuall.

A small white blur zipped into the the entryway as Ghost faded back. Panting heavily kitten slid to a halt with a thunk against the closed door opposite the one she entered. Ot oh A dead end! She began to scurry...surely there was another way out!

"Gottcha now..." A sick little boy intoned. In fact three other street kids huddled in on him smiling. Each of them carried some kind of stick they waved menacingly at the kitten.

Kitten scurried looking for a place to hide. The lead urchin tapped his stick on the floor as they entered and spread out to encircle her.

"I said it." Said forcefully as she slid into the room in full ghostly form. "You should be ashamed of yourselves. Chasing poor kitten like that!"

The kitten twisted around in her hug and rummaged at the backpack. She turned around and offered Ghost a dear prize...a morsel of peanutbutter crunch.

Silently and patiently the smugglers waited as the mud covered woman and strangely dress manned walked into their trap. Stupid people, with all their yelling they weren't hard to find at all!

"Pick them up and tie them. We'll take them to Mama." said one smuggler and the others jerked the net off Drum and 6th, spilling them out in a heap on the ground. 6th didn't even have any time to enjoy falling onto Drum's lap before she was jerked to her feet and her hands tied behind her back. The smugglers did the same to Drum, then patted them both down, spending way too much time frisking 6th. Irritated as she was about being captured, 6th didn't feel like playing around. She kicked the smuggler kneeling in front of her hard in the chin, spinning him around. She was grabbed on either side, as the smuggler sat up, rubbing his chin and...grinning?

"Touch me again, and you won't live long enough to regret it." 6th growled back, which caused another round of laughter from the smugglers.

The smuggler on the ground turned to another man, who seemed to be in charge. He waved his hand dismissively, "Skip it. What weapon could she be carrying with THAT outfit on?"

The smugglers nodded. One said "Yeah, and any thing she might have would be clogged up with mud by now." which caused another round of laugher and leers. 6th rolled her eyes.

"No. There's too many of them, and they have guns. Even I couldn't get us both out of this without someone getting hurt. Let's just see what they're going to do with us first. We'll figure out something."

"Don't worry about me. I'm not...well, I'm not covered in mud for one thing..." he trailed off. 6th was touched by his concern, wishing she could hug him. She'd have to remember to do that later...if there was a later, that is...

Jila was working on putting together the 15th peanut butter and banana sandwich. These lost children were bottomless pits! Vi was sitting on a little chair, the children surrounding her. She was telling them all about her life since she had left Neverland, her memories coming back the more she was in her old home.

Drum and 6th were led down into a grotto. They walked along a wooden bridge, water from the ocean filling the bottom of the caves. The sounds of water dripping and flowing echoed through the caverns, blending with the laughter and jeers of the smugglers as they led their captives down into the caves.

6th kept her eyes on their surroundings, mentally adding up how many men, what they were armed with, where they were. She didn't really worry too much about herself, but she had dragged Drum into this, and she would feel terrible if anything happened to him.

"We're here." the leader of the men said, opening a door and pushing 6th and Drum through. 6th stumbled as she came through the door, crashing into Drum, who couldn't do anything to catch her, his hands behind his back as they were. They feel in a heap before a large chair. Actually it was more of a throne, one that had been sitting in the damp for far too long. 6th and Drum struggled to get into sitting positions.

"Well, well, what have we here?" a gravelly woman's voice said, and 6th realized that there was a tough old woman sitting in the throne, smoking a cigar and squinting at them.

"We were looking for our friend." Drum said, his hands busy with the ropes binding his hands, while he racked his brain for a spell that might help...any spell!

"Well, you looked in the wrong place!" the old lady laughed, her son joining in. The rest of the smugglers stood against the back wall, obviously respectful of the old lady.

The old lady took a long drag on her cigar, while eyeing 6th and Drum. 6th glared defiantly back, while Drum tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. A few more minutes and his hands would be free at least...

"Well, I think we will have some money coming in soon!" the old lady laughed, rubbing her hands together. "Unless you two have anything to say about it?" she asked jokingly. The men all laughed.

"Limber! She'll bring a good price!" Mama muttered to her son, who leered. "Well, say your piece..." the old lady said, not really listening. The smugglers were all laughing, and muttering half-whispered comments about 6th's muddy appearance, among other things.

"Little lady, you don't know what you're talking about. Ragnar? He wouldn't be friends with the likes of you two! He'd have you drawn and quartered first! He's a dangerous man! Why, you two wouldn't last five seconds in the same room with him!" the smugglers were howling with laughter by this time. 6th looked at Drum who shook his head. He was a puzzled as she was. She had tossed out his name on a hunch that they'd know him, but she had no clue that they were on that fimiliar terms with their resident Viking.

6th and Drum turned to look as Ragnar stepped through the door, bending over slightly to fit through. He walked towards Mama, then did a double take as 6th registered in his sight.

Rae mutters as she bales the last of the water off of the deck. "I can't frelling believe it. Ths place is screwing up my magic. DRENN!!!"

Cursing, Rae stomps off below deck and returns a half-hour later adorned in black leather with a sword strapped to one hip and a pulse-pistol to the other. Various other weapons are strapped to her clothes, and she has a knife at each ankle.

were clean and all the little darlings were put to bed. Once the last of them were finally asleep, Viridian motioned to the others and they silently climbed up out of the hideaway. "I don't know where the hell Peter is, but it is just like him, taking off with no one to look after the little ones," Vi whispered.

"Well, I always found it kinda boring being a kid," she admitted. I mean you can't do that much and how many years can you play 'tag'? And ultimately, however much those kids think they're free, they always need someone to take care of them. I got sick of being so dependent and believe me, I was a kid for YEARS." She let out a long, heartfelt sigh. "Being a child isn't all is cracked up to be. Did you see all the faded drwings on the walls?" Her friends nodded. "I did those and the day I ran out of space, I knew I had to leave. I wanted my own studio where no other kids would draw all over my stuff. So I left." She shrugged her shoulders. "And I grew up."

Vi rolled her eyes. "That's another long story." Somewhere out in the inky black of the forest, a twig cracked. Vi turned toward the sound. "I don't think we're alone-- we better..."

Dark shapes lunged at them. Before the women could react, they found themselves bundled up into foul smelling sacks of burlap. Roughly, they were hoisted up over the shoulders of their captors and carried for what seemed like miles until they were rudely dumped to the ground.

The sacks were removed, leaving the trio gasping in the salt air. They were on a ship-- NOT the longboat and they were surrounded by the nastiest, smelliest, rancid bunch of pirates they had ever seen.

The leering bunch stepped back for the arrival of their leader. Captain Hook stomped forward and scowled at his prisoners each in turn. "Where ye find them, Fuzzinwag?"

Fuzzinwag's face split into a toothless grin. "We found 'em outside of Peter 'ouse, only that wee brat was nowheres that we could see."

Looking innocent Vi's eyes widened. "Oh I think if we had met before Captain sir, I'm SURE I would have remembered you!" That seemed to satisfy him; he stepped back. *Thank God for hair dye * Viridian thought.

Then Hook jabbed the torch toward Chryse and Jila. Seeing Jila properly for the first time, Captian Hook leaned back and let out a howl of delight. He slapped Fuzzinwag's back so hard the man fell over. "Well done, matey!" he shouted. He hauled a horrified Jila to her feet and twirled her around. "This is your lucky day lassie!" He stroked her face with his hook. "I'm taking thee to be my pirate queen!"

"Hurt my garters!" The crotchidy woman exclaimed. "You know more about slaving than I'll ever know! Probably bought this pair for half their value.

He turned to her and smiled, winking at Momma. "Well business is business....every once in a while you make a bad investment" He stole a look at 6th....

Momma continued to smile...6th seethed, Drum gaped."Sure i couldn't talk you into partnering up with me and my Boys? We need a man around these parts to show em how it's done!" She fished a cigar out of her pocket and offered it too him.

He pulled a folded paper out of his pocket. "I'll be needing a few things Ma. You can send the man off with you boy there to see about getting them."

Ragnar seemed to think that one over. "Kinda cute but all trouble Momma. Throw her in with the working staff for now but keep a close eye on her, she's a feisty one and prettty slick. She can serve us diner tonight."

"But nothing! Do as you Momma tells ya! And no messing with the merchandise. I don't need to tell you what Rag here did to the last one of you boys that crossed that line!"

Duh...The Captain was nearly beside himself with joy, preening his mustache with his well polished hook, when it began. He went stiff, if such is possible for a man leaning over.

"Tick tock...tick tock..." The soft preening continued jarring him with each rythmic sound...His teeth began to chatter and he looked around.

"Tick tock...tick tock..." A few feet away Chryse began her own chant. Viridian burst into giggles. Hook placed hand over ear, hook over other.

"But I don't want to be a queen.." She practiced her pleading. It didn't even sound real convincing to herself. Her shoulders slumped.

"What?...what?"...followed by a thoughtful pause. The scowl quickly became a smile.... "We'll just see who is the better Captain this time viking!"

Vi and Chryse were gagged, their hands tied behind their backs and had been left to stew by some boxes on deck. Hidden in the shadows, it was easy not to be seen as Chryse managed to work her gag off enough to talk.

"Vi?" she whispered, "Do you have any of you disposable knives in one of your pockets?" Viridian nodded vigorously and indicated with her head for Chryse to fish in one of her back pockets. The two sat fanny to fanny and Chryse reached in and pulled out a toothbrush, some paintbrush soap, a guide to Lyme disease prevention, a packet of seeds, a nail file,(good!) some kitty treats and then finally, a small retactable, disposable knife. It was a wonder that Viridian didn't look lumpy with all that stuff she carried. Chryse pushed out the blade and made fast work on the rope binding Vi's hands. Once free, Vi removed her gag and freed her friend.

"Good Grief Chryse," she whispered, "if you had taken any longer, I would have lost it! I'm way too ticklish for my own good!" They both giggled quietly. Then Viridian froze, sniffed the air and looked silently around.

So KaraS and Sweetiepie made up a pot of tea and found some left over raspberry shortcake with which to entertain their guest while they awaited Sixth's return.

"I don't know how to turn on the defense screens." Kara said. "But I do know how to go to submarine mode. I saw Ragnar do that in Spyral's dream!"

Pushing buttons, Kara retracted the new mast, fastened all the doors and hatch covers and the longsub slid smoothly underneath the water.

"You think he's firing at Peter?" asked Chryse. Vi nodded. "Hmm, I think we can use this. Come on, let's get out of here and find Jila. Then, let's get the frell off of this boat!"

The 2 stood up and began creeping along, Vi in the lead. *I hope I remember the layout of this ship. It's been a while since the last time I helped Peter annoy Hook* thought Vi.

They got out of the cargo hold without being seen since everyone was too busy obeying Hook's orders. The deck was a scramble of activity as the crew prepared to fire again. Taking a quick look around, the girls were astounded to see Ragnar's Longboat transform and dive underwater! With a look of astonishment at each other, they scurried off to look for Jila in Captain Hook's quarters.

Ghost sighed. How were they following her? Geeze, being a Ghost some days just wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Hmmm...where to go now?

They had worked their way further into the Land of Disney, hoping to find artickat or at least a trace of any of the others. So far no luck. Surely the others hadn't all kept to the coast had they?

Ghost smiled and picked her up. Iddly she began scratching the kitten behind the ears....*I wonder if Casper was a Disney flick...or how about Beetlejuice!

Kaybe peered over a nearby bush. Sometime back she had left the beach path from the Swiss family Robinsons and taking up the Kings Highway. She really hadn't given the title much thought. Ooops. The Robinsons had been so nice she had sort of lost herself there for a while.

Arrayed before her was a scene strait out of the Robin Hood era. Only this wasn't Robin or the merrymen, but the Sherriffs soldiers from the castle and they were rounding up what appeared to be a group of dancers from some sort of tavern.

She looked around but Artist seemed to be gone. And Spyral? He was supposed to meet her but haddn't shown either! Men! So dependable!

unaware that one was brewing back at the boat. She wandered through a gloomy forest, but the various Disney villains seemed to recognize her as a kindred spirit - one best left well alone.

Rae had two problems: Here in Disney her powers weren't working properly and she couldn't get Artist out of her head. She knew far too much about him for her own comfort.

Rae shook her head thinking about him and 6th and Kara and where all the whipped cream had got off to. She knew more than he wanted her to about why he had returned to the boat without Mouse. That memory was so strong she could almost feel the hand print on her own cheek. Given the same situation she would certainly have reacted differently...

"No!" she thought fiercely to herself, "I want Ragner! Ragner, Ragner..." But try as she might, she could not get the huge viking to look right in a white tuxedo. Rae held her head in her hands and grimaced. "Get out of my head, Artist!" she said aloud.

"I can't," came a voice from right beside her. She turned to see Artist fade into view. "No more than you can get out of mine. When SweetiePie woke us up we were still inside each other's minds. Allow me to demonstrate the extent of the problem..."

Artist walked away - before he had gone 10 feet, both he and Rae were nearly doubled over with nausea - which faded as he returned. "We are joined at the hip until we straighten this out."

"All right - let's get this over with," she grumbled - knowing he could easily see through the act. She tried her best not to smile.