Sacred Mountain

Chapter 5: Gone

A shout woke Daisy from troubled dreams of dragons and gorgons.

She sat bolt upright in bed, pushed her long black hair out of her eyes and saw that Jemima and the family of deer, sleeping at the bottom of her bed had also jolted awake.

'What was that?' Jemima mumbled, rubbing her puffy green eyes, her curly red hair disheveled It was not yet dawn but looking through the window, Daisy could see a light shining in the temple.

Daisy and Jemima hastily pulled their green acolytes' cloaks over their nightdresses and ran out of their cottage. Outside the temple, Cressida stood hunched over, one hand on the temple wall, the other holding her forehead. She was breathing heavily, her shoulders rising and falling. Gerda had a hand on her upper back.

'They can't have gone far,' she was saying. As soon as she saw the two girls, Gerda spun towards them, arms outstretched as if to shield them from the truth of what had happened.

'Go back to your. . .' she started but Cressida cut her off.

'The Gorgon's escaped and the crystal's been stolen.'

'What?' Daisy's eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

'But how?' Jemima protested. 'Nobody from outside knows how to get here.'

'She didn't escape alone,' Cressida straightened up and tucked her white hair behind her ears with trembling hands. 'There are echoes of dark magic all around here.'

'Look, tracks!' Jemima called from over by the edge of the forest. 'Hoof marks and ruts that look like they've been made by a wagon.'

'We'll follow them,' Gerda ran to where Jemima was crouching.

'You won't be able to follow the tracks. They'll disappear as soon as the ground becomes hard.' Cressida's voice shook. 'There are so many paths through the forest.' Daisy had never heard the Burned One sound so desperate. It alarmed her.

'I've got an idea,' Jemima said, running back to their cottage. She came back a minute later with her special belt. A smile spread across Daisy's face, Oh my friend, you are ingenious! It was a wide, cloth belt which fitted neatly round Jemima's waist. It had dozens of small pockets sewn into it, each with the name of an animal embroidered on the front: Tabby Cat, Wood Pigeon, Grass Snake, Spaniel, Black Stallion. 'Here it is, Bloodhound! I knew I had it! Daisy and I will shift into bloodhounds and follow the scent.'

Jemima and Daisy were both Shifters – specially talented Wise Women who could transform into animals by touching the animal they wanted to change into and concentrating on it. After a lot of practice they were now able to Shift just by touching a part of an animal such as a piece of fur or feather. Jemima, always the organized one, had spent months collecting fur, feathers, hair, claws, discarded reptile skin and such like and arranging them in specially labeled pockets in her belt. Now they could Shift into whatever form they needed to take, even if the animal wasn't there.

'Great! And we can practice our reclothing spell too,' Daisy joined. The disadvantage with shifting was that when you turned into an animal you left your clothes behind so when you became human again, you were naked. While perusing the rarer books in the library, Daisy had found a spell which disappeared your clothes and rematerialized them when you shifted back into your human body.

The two girls breathed in, half-closed their eyes to connect with their inner power, and chanted the spell in unison. From her belt, Jemima extracted a small muslin bag tied with a string. It was stuffed with tiny pieces of brown fur. She untied it and held it open in her palm. The each placed their index finger inside, closed their eyes and imagined themselves into bloodhound consciousness.