Journey’s End

Journey's EndBy

Jan Rohan

Jan Rohan Page 1 02/05/2023

Journey’s End

Chapter One.

It was nearly four years since Jack, George and the men that lived at Ronwin Hurtz managed to defeat Davenour and Croyoden. Every thing was getting back to normal, the Inn that had been rebuilt was having more visitors than ever, which meant that George, and his brother Jack, were working harder than they ever were, they were even really happy about it too. They even had to take on extra staff and have an extension built on to the back of the Inn. For the rest of the men that had been a part of the defeat of Davenour and Croyoden, any visitor that came to the town was asking them about the fight too. The King and Queen of the country paid them a visit and invited them to their stately home and gave them medals for bravery and services to the country. The rest of the village was awarded in their own rights too. On their next visit to the Inn, the King gave George and Jack a certificate, which said it met with the Royal Seal of Approval. Jack decided to go to the Inn for ale, on his way there he noticed a couple of cloaked figures walking towards him, he thought he recognised them. “Hello Jack, how are things going these days?” Said one of the cloaked figures.“Staigo? Nice to see you again, we’re not in for more trouble are we?” Said Jack.“No, not at all. Just thought we’d pay you a visit. How's George doing, hope things are all right at the Inn?”“They certainly are, George had to have an extension built about a year ago, and he's extended the kitchen, plus more staff. We've had quite a lot of visitors since you left, and there's been no sign of any let up. We seem to have become quite popular.” Said Jack.“That is good news, Emberdean was wondering if you managed to get any customers since this one had been rebuilt.” Said Staigo.“Once word got out that we had reopened they started coming. Are you on your way there now?” Said Jack.“We are. I hope the service is as good as it was before.” All three walked to the Travellers Arms chatting away like they had never gone away. When they entered the Inn, the two travellers kept their hoods up and approached the bar, George was working behind the bar he was about to tell the two to get out of the Inn when Staigo and Paltrow took the hoods off their heads, he was really pleased to see them.“Staigo, Paltrow, welcome! Welcome to the new and improved Travellers Arms! What would you like? The ale's are just as good as the last time that you were here, if not better.” He said.“We would love some, and have you any rooms? Jack told us that you had been really busy of late.” Said Paltrow.“You just wouldn't believe how busy. Would you like a meal? I’m sure we can rustle up a banquet for you. Most weeks we haven't got any rooms left, if I'd known you we're coming I would have saved you a room.” Said George.“No room at the Inn? Never mind, I’m sure we can make other arrangements. A meal would be quite welcome after our long journey, have you a menu so we can chose?” Said Staigo. George passed him a menu, then served the ales to them and Jack. Just as they were about to drink the ales, some one tapped Paltrow on the shoulder.“Aren’t you the guys that helped beat Davenour and Croyoden and saved the whole of this country? Wow! I’m honoured to meet you, Sirs. I’m Anthony, and I live in a village not far from here in Dithering Dell. The people there really appreciate what you did too, they will be really jealous and excited when I tell them that I met you. Are you staying here tonight?” Said the man.

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“Unfortunately not, George hasn’t any rooms left, we are going to have to make other arrangements.” Said Paltrow.“Mr. Scrummpy, are you sure you haven’t a room left for these two heroes’?” Said Anthony. “If I say I’m full, I’m full. I don’t need you to tell me what to do.” George checked where he kept the keys, and the book he kept with those who had checked in. He went through the book, and found that he had got three rooms that were empty."Your in luck, I do have a couple of rooms empty, I thought I was still full, some people must have checked out. Two of them have two single beds and the other just has the one. Would you like the single room Mr, err, what's your surname?" Said George. "Oh, that would be great. The name is Anthony Delross, the room sounds fine and I'll be staying for about a week if that's possible?" Said Anthony. George got him to sign in while he offered Paltrow and Staigo the other two rooms, they told him they'd have the one. After they all signed in, Paltrow, Staigo and Jack ordered something to eat and sat at a nearby table. Anthony followed them and joined them at the same table. “Are you here for business again?” Said Anthony.“Well, no we're here for pleasure this time, hopefully.” Said Paltrow.“I'm here for pleasure too. It's always a pleasure to come here, this Inn was highly recommended by a friend of mine before it was burned out the last time. I stayed here a few months before it was, and now that it's been rebuilt, well what can I say? It seems even better, doesn't it? What do you think?” Said Anthony, chatting away as if he'd known them for years.“I'm going to see if my meal is nearly ready and get another drink, bye.” Said Paltrow. He got up and walked over to the bar and asked for another ale, while talking to Staigo. Jack was sitting there, listening shaking his head, he couldn't believe the guy was sitting there talking to them as though he'd known them for years. It wasn't long before the meals for Paltrow and Staigo were brought out, they sat at a different table, Jack excused himself and joined them, leaving Anthony to sit on his own. Anthony looked around the room to see if any of his friends that had accompanied him on his journey had come back to the Inn yet, they hadn't, he got up from the table and decided to go looking for them. Paltrow and Staigo breathed a sigh of relief when they saw him leave.“Thank heavens for that, I thought that he was going to be following us around forever then, I didn't want him behind us all the time.” Said Paltrow, relieved the man had gone.“Me too, I came here to get away from people like that. His relatives don't live near us do they?” Said Staigo laughing, with a big grin on his face Paltrow carried on with his meal without saying a word. Jack was sitting there laughing and tried not to choke on his drink.“I hope he's not staying longer than a week.” Said Jack, “I don't think I could take more than that, especially with you two.”“What about us two? You want us to go back home now?” Said Paltrow."No, nothing like that, it's just when you come across people like him you seem to go crazy." Said Jack."People like that send me crazy, that's why." Said Paltrow pulling a face, "By the way, Elronda, Christo and Alfedo and all their men send their best, they're hoping to come back soon to make sure there's been no more trouble in the area. They weren’t too sure if they got rid of all those demons and minions.""I haven't heard of any one having any trouble in the area. I can only assume they have been, but that don't mean there isn't any around. I haven't seen any myself but then I haven't really been looking. I've been in and out of here helping George a lot, even though he's got the extra staff, there's nothing like family helping out." Said Jack.

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"That's true. As far as you know, there have been no sightings of any of those things we fought?" Said Staigo. "As far as I know, there hasn't been. Nothings got back here by messenger or letter from anywhere. Every things been really quiet, apart from us being busy, of course." Said Jack, "I hope it stays like it too." A faint memory of what happened before came to him, he felt a cold shiver run down his back."Any way, what brings you two here? I know lot's of people come here for either a break or to visit some one in town, the last time you were here it wasn't exactly good news that came with you, or followed you." Said Jack."We are here for our pleasure." Said Paltrow, "This meal certainly contributes to it, too. I've never in my whole life tasted any meal as good as at this Inn. Have your cooks learnt how to cook now?" he said, laughing, and ducking when Jack raised his hand as though to hit him, "Don't get me wrong, they could cook before. You must have got rid of the other staff that you had. Have you changed the staff? Seriously, I need to know I can't believe what I'm eating here. This is impressive." Staigo was inclined to agree with Paltrow, the food was a lot better than it was before."We have made a few staff changes. Mainly because we lost several good people before, some of the cooks came with us and they were either killed or couldn't work again. Their sons have taken over where they left off, they told me that their fathers trained them at home well before. Look, I've got some things to do, I will come and see you later." Said Jack, getting up and excusing himself. He didn't really want to talk about what happened a few years ago. Even now, after every thing was settled, he still felt bitter about loosing all the good men that had helped in getting rid of Davenour and Croyoden. Making his way out of the Inn, he walked towards the Town Square and stood in front of the Memorial that Alberto Latimere had donated and had placed there. There had been too many people that had given their lives then to go on the towering Memorial.The main inscription read:

‘To the living memory of all those whoFought in battles to save all our lives.

Many fought and many never came back.We knew them all and knew them well.

We thank them all.’

Jack took a deep breath, he sighed while holding back tears he couldn’t shed, and then walked back to his home. Unlocking the door, he walked through to his kitchen, intent on making himself some food. Instead, he just poured himself a glass of wine, taking the bottle with him he walked through to his living room, sat down and drank the whole bottle. He was drunk by the time he'd finished it and fell to sleep where he sat.

Paltrow and Staigo stayed at the Travellers Arms till later that evening, then took the short walk up to Jacks home to see him. Walking up the path then knocking on the door, they waited a while for him to answer. As there wasn't any, they knocked again, louder, just in case he hadn't heard them, there still wasn't any answer.“Do you think he's all right?” Said Staigo.“He seemed all right earlier. Better try the door again.” Said Paltrow, knocking again. There was still no answer, he tried the door to see if it was unlocked, the door opened and they stepped inside calling his name. They walked through the house checking the library then the bedroom he wasn't there. They entered the living room

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and found him sleeping on the settee, looking pale. Approaching him they tried to wake him, he wouldn't move, Paltrow checked his breathing, which was rather slow."He doesn't sound too good. His breathing is rather shallow, what has he done now?" He said, looking around and finding an empty bottle on the floor, "I think he's had too much wine and got drunk. He never had anything to eat while he was with us and it doesn't look as though he had any thing when he got back either.""What does he think he's doing? I think when we turned up, it may have triggered the memories of when we were here before." Said Staigo. Jack stirred and opened his eyes and thought he was under attack by some one else, and started thrashing about hitting Paltrow hard."Jack! Jack it's us, Staigo and Paltrow." Said Staigo, helping Paltrow up and pulling him out of the way of Jack. As Jack tried to get up off the chair to hit out again, he fell and landed heavily on the floor, and rolled over in pain. The two men helped him back up and sat him on the chair he came off. Nursing his arm, Jack moaned aloud and told them to get out, he didn't want demons in his house."What are you talking about, Jack? It's us, Paltrow and Staigo." Said Paltrow."Get out of my home demons, before I take my sword to you." Said Jack. He was still suffering the effects of the wine he had drunk earlier. "Have you eaten today, Jack?" Said Paltrow, Jack waved his arms around again, and nearly hit Paltrow again."We haven't got our things with us, go and see if he's got anything in his kitchen that will help him, if not we'll have to go and get something for him." Said Staigo. Paltrow got up and entered the kitchen and started to look around. There wasn't any food anywhere, just empty bottles of wine and a sink full of dirty plates. Paltrow went back into the living room and said he would have to go and get some food and their things, as there was nothing in the kitchen."Will you be alright with him till I get back? I won't be to long." Said Paltrow."I should think I will, I don't think he'll start up while you’re gone." Said Staigo.Paltrow left the house and hurried to the Travellers Arms and got his bag, then walked to one of the local stores to get some food that would be needed when he got back. After picking up several other items, he hurried back to Jacks home and walked inside. As he entered the living room, Jack was trying to sit up, still telling the demons to get out of his house. Paltrow told Staigo to follow him to the kitchen, between them they made him something to eat and made some thing with what they had to help sober him up. While the meal was cooking, they took the potion through and sat on the seat next to Jack. Staigo tried to wake him up properly while Paltrow held the potion ready it to give him. Jack groaned as he stirred, he opened his eyes and looked at the two men."Demons! Get out of here. No! Demons get out!" he said."Jack, where are the demons? We’re here to help you." Said Paltrow, Jack pointed at Staigo and himself."Looks like the drink he's had has made him see things." Said Paltrow, "Try and give him the potion while I hold him." He said as he passed him the bottle. Paltrow grabbed hold of Jack as Staigo had the bottle and held onto his mouth, pouring the potion into Jack, they had another fight on their hands as he started struggling with them, then they moved away from him as quick as they could. "Have a look to see if that meal is ready for Jack yet would you Staigo?" Said Paltrow as he watched Jack slide back down on the seat. He seemed to go into a deep sleep for the time being, while Staigo walked into the kitchen to check the food had cooked. An hour later, Jack woke up with quite a bad hangover. Looking at Paltrow and Staigo, he didn't know how long they had been there, or why they were there. "What are you doing here? I thought you were staying at the Inn, it's getting really late." Said Jack as he sat up, "Oh, my head! What happened?" "Don't you remember Jack?" Said Paltrow.

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"No, I came home after looking at something, and had a drink, I think. And fell asleep, that's all I remember." Said Jack."Don't you remember us coming here, or giving you something to drink?" Said Paltrow."No, should I?" Said Jack shaking his head slightly as it still throbbed."So, you don't remember calling us demons? You must have been well drunk. When was the last time you ate any thing, by the look of your kitchen, it must be a while." Said Paltrow.“I can't remember, I think I had some thing this morning.” Said Jack scratching his head, “I feel as though I've been in a fight.” He got up off the sofa and started to walk through to the bathroom, he started wobbling and almost fell over another chair, grabbing hold of it to steady himself. Staigo came out of the kitchen with the food he'd prepared, and asked him if he was ready to eat, Jack took one look at it and ran for the bathroom as quick as he could and spent the next few minutes hovering over the toilet.“Do you think he's going to be all right?” Said Staigo.“I doubt it, looks like we're going to have to play nursemaid for a while.” Said Paltrow. A few minutes later Jack came back out of the bathroom, and was asked again if he wanted to eat the food, Jack sat at the table and started picking at the food in front of him, only eating a little at a time.“Jack? Are you all right?” Said Staigo.“Yes, I just don't feel like eating really.” He said.“You can't be ill again surely, what about you're drinking? What were you seeing earlier when we came in?” Said Paltrow.“No, I'm not ill; I don't know what's causing it. I don't normally get drunk on one bottle of wine.” Said Jack.“But what about when we got here, you kept going on about demons.” Said Paltrow.“Demons? I've no idea. I haven't seen any.” Said Jack.“Are you sure? Only you were pointing at us and telling demons to get out.” “That's a new one. Are you sure that I was doing that?” He said putting his fork down and pushing his plate away. Paltrow and Staigo sat at the table with him.“Please eat some more, Jack. You've got to keep your strength up. What's done is done, there shouldn't be any more demons, I'm sure we took care of them all before.” Said Staigo.“Did anyone check all the area? If there are any still out there we won't know about it.” Said Jack.“If any one would be able to, you should, I think you would have known if there are any. Has George had any visions lately?” Said Staigo.“I don't know, we've spoken, but not about the trouble we had back then.” Said Jack. He started playing with the food on the plate again he was looking thoughtful. He got up and started walking round the living room rubbing his head, he still had the hangover. “Jack, do you want help to tidy this place up? You've let this place go.” Said Staigo. Jack shook his head, and carried on walking around, then wondered off into his bedroom and sat on his bed with his back against the wall. He felt tired, and wanted to sleep but felt it would be a waste of time. Getting up again and walking through the rest of his house, then into the library. Slowly going around the room, looking at his books and files he didn't know what to do, he felt lost for the first time in months. Paltrow and Staigo followed him into the library, and watched him, to them he looked as though he was in pain. Stepping into the hallway and beckoning Paltrow, Staigo looked worried.“There's definitely something wrong with Jack. I think he has been having visions again and not told anyone, I don't know why he hasn't told us, he would normally.” Said Staigo.

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“What makes you think he has? Apart from him being drunk earlier when we weren’t here, he could just be suffering from something else.” Said Paltrow.“Like what? I don't think he's usually like this. There must be something...” Some thing falling in the room got Paltrow and Staigo rushing in a hurry to the library, where they found Jack sprawled on the floor.“Told you there was something wrong with him.” Said Staigo as they both approached him and tried to wake him up, “Help me get him back to the settee in the other room.” They picked him up and took him to the living room and placed him on the settee.“I hope that wasn't a reaction to the potion that we gave him.” Said Staigo.“I doubt it, don't forget, we've used them on him before and they helped.” Said Paltrow “I've put a second one in my bag get it for me in case it's needed, will you?” “Ok, but try waking him first, or wait till he comes round before you use it.” Said Staigo as he helped to put Jack down then got the potion out of the bag.While they were waiting for Jack to come around there was a knock at the door, Paltrow answered it, and on opening the door George was waiting to be let in.“I didn't know you came to see Jack? How come he never answered the door?” He said.“He's out at the moment, out cold.” Said Paltrow.“What? Not again...” Said George rushing past Paltrow “Where is he?”“We've taken him into the living room.” Said Paltrow following him.“How long has he been out?” Said George.“Not long, a few minutes. He collapsed or fell in his library.” Said Paltrow, he stood behind George while he was near the settee looking at Jack.“Same as last time.” Said George. Staigo and Paltrow looked at each other and then George.“Last time? How many times has this happened then?” Said Staigo.“I've lost count to be honest, at a rough guess I'd say about seven or eight times.” Said George, “That's why I'm here now, I know he hasn't really been taking care of himself since every one left.”“When we arrived here, we couldn't get any answer, we came in to find Jack sleeping on there, and I think he'd been drinking, wine possibly.” Said Paltrow.“Has he eaten here?” Said George.“I cooked him something, but he didn't eat much of it.” Said Staigo, “We were going to help him tidy this place up, we had no answer, he just started to walk around aimlessly.” Just then Jack sat up screaming loudly, making the three men jump; he started thrashing around again as if he was fighting some thing invisible.“Demons! Demons get out, get out, get out.” He started shouting “Aarrgh, no, no! Don't kill me, don't!” Then flopped back down onto the seat, sweat was pouring off his face.“He was like this earlier, only he thought that we were the demons.” Said Staigo “Did he do this before?”“No, well, last time it was Shadow’s. There is definitely some thing wrong with him, only he won't admit it.” Said George, “I’ve tried to persuade him to stay with me for a while, but he won’t. I’ve had the healers over here to look at him, I’ve even taken him over to the buildings, and they can't find any thing wrong with him. Why I don't know.” Staigo, Paltrow and George stayed with Jack, sitting on the seats around the room, keeping a watchful eye on Jack. Paltrow started feeling sleepy, and dozed off where he sat, and started dreaming of Davenour, Croyoden and demons, the fights, and the Travellers Arms burning. In his dream one of the demons attacked and almost killed him, he woke up with a start and pulled his sword out to strike. Staigo and George jumped up and stepped out the way as it looked like they were going to get hit.

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“Paltrow.” Both the men shouted together, as he was standing in front of them breathing heavily, sword in his hand, and his face glistening with sweat. Paltrow fell to his knees, and sat back on the floor.“I think something is here.” Said Paltrow, “Dreams of when we were here before, fighting demons, Davenour, Croyoden. Some thing is causing the dreams.”“How can that be?” Said Staigo.“There's possibly some thing connected, from before, causing this to happen. George, have you any thing that can reveal what ever is around here?” Said Paltrow.“I haven't, but Jack should still have the staff here. Where he’s put it I don't know. What do you thinks happening?” Said George.“Remember the Shadow’s we were fighting before? I've got a feeling that some thing similar is happening now. Possibly something invisible here is causing Jack to be this way, bad dreams, or something controlling them.” Said Paltrow.“Wake Jack up, he’s probably having a similar dream. We must get him to find the staff.” Said Paltrow, “There must be some thing around that’s triggering these dreams. I haven’t had dreams like that before I arrived at Ronwin Hurtz when we managed to defeat Davenour and Croyoden. Every thing was getting back to normal, the Inn that had been rebuilt, everyone was getting on with their lives.”George and Staigo tried to wake Jack up, it proved a little difficult at first, and then he woke up with a start.“What? What’s going on? I was having the most wonderful dream. But…” said Jack, “You look a bit worried, what’s wrong?”“Paltrow woke up after having some sort of bad dream. He’s got an idea that there’s some thing going on.” Said Staigo, “We need your staff to find out if there is any thing here.”"We think there is something causing these dreams. I’ve found you out cold a few times, and you collapsed in your library not so long ago. There must be something behind it, the Healers can't find any thing wrong with you so it must be something else.” Said George. Jack got up and walked through to his bedroom to find the keys to the doors in the hallway and found them, then approached the doors, opening first the one then the other. The staff wasn’t in either of the small rooms, then he remembered, he’d put them into one of his secret places. He closed and re-locked both the doors and found his secret entrance and disappeared. A few minutes later he came out with the staff in his hand, the crystal that he’d left in it started glowing fiercely as he walked through his home.“That answers the question, there is something around here.” Said George, “He never seems to keep a check on things like he said he would.” He said as the staff took on a brilliant white hue.“Shalambar Soondred!” Said Jack, as the staff sparked and shot out bolts out all around the room, hitting several ghostly figures, which disintegrated as the bolts hit them. Staigo and Paltrow ducked as the staff spread them all around the room.“My God! I didn't know there were so many!” Said Paltrow, getting back up, “Don't look like we will be having any more problems with those any more. Any idea what they were Staigo?”“Never seen any thing like them before. I wished that one of them could have been saved to find out some information about them and who sent them or where they came from.” Said Staigo, picking himself up off the floor, Jack was startled at this and was wondering what was going on.“Now I know why you were acting like you were, I won’t need to worry so much.” Said George, “At least they've been dealt with, I hope there’s no more around making people have the same sort of dreams.”“There's no way of knowing that, we can't see what people are dreaming.” Said Staigo, “Jack, I think you'd better get some of your crystals out and leave them lying around just in case they come back, or more come.”

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“I think I will, what about the rest of the town? Would that spell work on all the buildings that you used on the Travellers Arms to stop Davenour and Croyoden getting out.” Said Paltrow.“I've no idea, it might not work. It’s only meant to work on one building at a time, and only if you’re trying to stop people from taking over.” Said Jack.“What about the whole area? Have you got any thing for that?” Said Paltrow.“I’d have to check. What we could do is have some powder sprinkled all over the town and see what happens.” Said Jack.“Have you got any thing that would do the trick?” Said George, “Sounds like a good idea, what ever you do. I trust you when it comes to things like this.”“I don’t think I have, I’ll have to go round to the shop that Will owns and find out if he’s had any new things come in recently. I can’t do it now as he’ll be closed, I’ll go in the morning.” Said Jack.“Come round to the Inn, I’ll give you a meal to make sure you’ve eaten. Come on, after what’s happened today, I want to keep an eye on you.” Said George, “And bring your staff with you, I want to know if there’s any hanging around there.” Jack told him to wait awhile while he went around the rest of his home making sure there was no more of the ghosts. They all got together and left, Jack locking up behind him, and headed for the Travellers Arms. Before they had even entered the building, the crystal in the staff had started glowing.“Looks like there are more of them, if not the ghosts then some thing else.” Said Paltrow to Jack when he noticed it. “Looks like I’ll have to get a potion of some sort together, and a spell, to find out what’s around here. The crystal in this staff will only show when there’s any thing of any nature around.” When they entered the Inn the staff there wondered why Jack had his staff with him, but never asked as the crystal was glowing brightly. Donno came over to them.“Good evening, Jack, Paltrow, Staigo, George, would you like some ale?” He said.“Yes we would, bring them over to the table over in the corner, please, would you Donno?” Said George, as they walked through the room, Donno walked over to the bar to get the ales, then took them to the table. “Will there be any thing else?” he asked.“Oh, yes would you order four of the chef’s specials too. I’ll pay for them in a while.” Said George, “When we’ve eaten, the bar is going to have to be cleared of the people, I’m going to have to put a spell on this building again, to keep these things in.” Said Jack.“Hey, I don't want this Inn going up in flames again!” Said George.“Don’t worry, it won’t go up in flames, I’m just putting a spell on it to stop those things, what ever they are this time from going out. I’ll use the staff to be rid of them like I did at my home.” Said Jack. “Are you sure? Last time you used it the whole place was lost.” Said George.“Of course. Last time I had something in the cellar.” Said Jack smiling at him. When Donno brought the meals out he asked him to get three of the men to stand at the door and not let any more people in, to tell them they were closing up early.

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Chapter Two.

Once the Inn was empty, George locked up for the night, and made sure that none of the people were staying were able to come down stairs. The crystal in the staff was still glowing, though not as brightly as before, Jack had to walk around the Inn to see where it shone the brightest. Going up the stairs, the staff started shining brighter as he walked down one of the hallways. Realising that most of them had followed the guests upstairs he held the Staff aloft.“Shalambar Soondred!” Said Jack in a loud voice, hoping that he wouldn't wake who ever was in the rooms sleeping. As the staff glowed brightly and showed up the ghosts that were there then shot bolts at all of them. Going back down stairs he saw some of the ghosts still walking around, and the staff was glowing again.“Shalambar Soondred.” Said Jack again, holding the staff aloft again. This time it didn’t work, they were still walking around the room, and they were looking more solid than they were before. “It’s not working this time, try some thing else.” Said Staigo.“Don’t blow the place up while you’re doing it.” Said George, as Jack came back down the stairs and raising the staff.“Dracaena Blazoon” Said Jack, as lightening bolts shot out every where hitting all the ghostly figures, making them explode where they were. Finally, the Inn was emptied of them, and they all breathed a sigh of relief, especially George, as the Inn never caught fire.“I hope that's it.” Said Staigo, looking around the room, Jack looked at the crystal in the staff, it wasn't glowing any more.“The crystal doesn't show any thing in here any more, I can assume its safe now.” Said Jack, “I’ll still have to go round the town tomorrow and make sure that there's none around. Just because there's none here, don’t mean there's none around any where.”“Looks like I can shut up shop properly now.” Said George, going around putting off most of the lights, “Jack, will you get four ales for us all, and we’ll have them in my quarters. Paltrow, Staigo, your welcome in there too.” “Why, thank you, George. I’ll go and put the lights on for you.” Said Paltrow, as he walked to the door near the bar and opened the door. There was a warm glow coming from the fire, as he turned on the lights, behind him Staigo followed him into the room. A few minutes later, Jack and George came into the room, Jack placed the tray of drinks on the table and grabbed one for him self then sat down on a chair near the fire. The others grabbed theirs and sat around the room, George was feeling tired, he managed to keep himself awake to drink his ale.“I wonder where all those ghostly figures are coming from?” Said Jack, “I’ve never seen so many. I know it can’t be Davenour and Croyoden's work.”“I doubt if it's the men that were killed. We would know.” Said Paltrow, drinking some of the ale “How are we going to find out where they came from?”“I thought ghosts were ghosts, and they moved around the area where they died or some thing like that. They don’t normally make them selves seen.” Said George.“They normally are. I haven't known anything like this before.” Said Staigo.“They must be coming from some where. Do you think any one could be behind them?” Said Jack, sipping his drink.“I don't think so.” Said Paltrow, thoughtfully, “Wasn't there an incident some time back, either before Davenour, or not long after he was exiled?”

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“I think your right, there was, but it wasn't their doing. I can't remember who was behind it now.” Said Staigo, “I’d have to check with Emberdean.”“Right, shall we do it now or in the morning?” Said Paltrow.“In the morning, it's getting late. Think I'll go to bed, you coming up too?” Said Staigo, finishing off his ale. “Your right it is late, just let me finish my ale and I'll be with you.” Said Paltrow, “We’ll contact Emberdean in the morning, and let you know what's going on if we can. Goodnight, we’ll see you in the morning.” He said looking at George and Jack, George got up and took them to the door to the bar, and watched them walk up the stairs, and then he went back to finishing his ale.“There’s a bed through there for you to spend the night, I’ve locked up every where now so you’ve got no choice but to stay the night, ok.” Said George.“That’s fine, I don't mind. It’s about time I spent time with my brother. Thanks George.” Said Jack finishing his drink and getting up, “Where’s the other bedroom?”“Come with me, I’ll show you.” Said George opening the door near the corner and going through with Jack following him. At the end of the hallway he opened another door and walked in.“There you go, Jack. Ready and waiting, free lodgings for the night for my brother.” He said.“Wow! Would you look at this room! It’s fantastic.” Said Jack, “Is this what that guy and his men did? What was his name now?”“Alberto Latimere.” Said George.“That’s it, Alberto Latimere. He’s certainly knows how to put things together, doesn’t he? Thanks for letting me stay the night, George, I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight.” Said Jack. They gave each other a hug and George left to go to his own room, sighing as he walked down the hallway. He now felt relief as he knew what had been happening to his brother.

After a goodnights sleep, George woke bright and early and started making preparations in the bar, and kitchen, ready for when the staff came in. Not long after some of the staff started to arrive, to start preparing the breakfasts, some of them were looking as though they never got a good nights rest at all. George went back to the bar, Jack was up and was over by the fireplace cleaning it out and getting it ready to make another fire. “Good morning George.” He said.“Good morning Jack, did you sleep well?” Said George.“To well. I must admit that bed and room were really comfortable.” Said Jack.“Pleased to hear it, the staff is just arriving now, if you want some breakfast it won't be long.” Said George, “Need a hand with that?”“I'll be fine, I don’t mind doing it, thanks.” Said Jack carrying on with putting the logs in the hearth. It wasn’t long before Staigo and Paltrow came down stairs, by this time George had a selection of hot drinks on a table near the stairs. The two men sat near the fire place with their drinks, Jack called to them then went to get cleaned up, it was a dirty job getting the fire going. Soon he could smell the food cooking and couldn’t wait for breakfast to be brought out, he went over and sat with the two men while they waited. “What have you two got planned for today?” Said Jack, “I know you've only come for a pleasure visit.”“We haven’t contacted Emberdean yet, we’ll be doing that after breakfast. After that we’ve nothing planned yet, have we Staigo?” Said Paltrow.“Not yet, depends on what Emberdean says. If there has been a reoccurrence, we’ll be making more plans then.” Said Staigo. While the three men were talking, waiters were starting bringing out food and placing it on the table near the hot drinks, some of them going back and coming back with cutlery and plates, putting them one end of the table.

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“Looks like we can get started, let’s get in before the others guests come down.” Said Jack getting up and making for the table. Being one of the first down stairs, they could get what ever they wanted instead of what was left, then sat back at the table and really enjoyed the morning meal. Laughing and joking as they ate. Soon, the rest of the guests started coming down stairs, two at a time, and the room started filling up, and the food was soon almost gone. One of the waiters came through and checked the table then went back into the kitchen to get some more food to put on the table. Thirty minutes later, the table was empty and people started going about their business around the town. One of the guests went back up stairs to get something from his room, and just happened to look into one of the rooms on his way past, he stood still looking in horror at what he saw inside and let out a yell. Jack, Paltrow and Staigo rushed up stairs, George was behind the bar and soon followed them up. Jack stopped suddenly in the doorway, what met his eyes wasn’t a pretty sight. The other three were right behind him and he was pushed into the room.“What the...?” Said Paltrow, as he managed to get past Jack. Staigo and George stood behind them. The room was a mess and the people that were staying there were dead. Looking around the room, there was no sign of forced entry, the two bodies were on the floor one near the bed and one by the window.“Better get the doctor, I know they are dead, but he may find a cause of death.” Said Paltrow, as he went over to check the bodies, “It don’t look like there’s any marks on them they may have died in their sleep.” George went over for a closer look and couldn't see any marks on them either.“I’ll go and get the doctor, can you make sure that no one comes into this room. I hope this doesn’t affect the business. Jack, go and get the spare key for this room and lock it till I come back.” Said George, as he went back towards the door. Staigo and Paltrow headed out the door followed by Jack and George, closing the door behind them. By the time they came out of the room, there were quite a few people in the hallway wanting to know what was going on.“Staigo, Paltrow, can you make sure that no one else goes in there please? I won't be long.” Said George, “Ok, people lets have you all on your way down stairs please, there’s nothing to look at. Go about your business.” He said as he ushered the people that had gathered in the hallway down stairs. They all asked George what had happened and when, as he didn’t know he told them to just go about their routine, or leave the building. Jack went down to the bar and got the spare keys from behind the bar, then went back to lock the door of the room. Paltrow and Staigo decided to go back down stairs as the door was locked this time they sat near the bottom of the stairs so that they could see the room.

George hurried as fast as he could to the doctor’s home, which was almost on the edge of the town. Running up to the door, he kept banging on the door till the doctor opened it and almost hit his face.“George, what’s up? Nothings happened to Jack has it?” George was still breathless while he tried to tell him, shaking his head he tried to tell him what had happened.“I'm going to lose the business, this time for sure. Two people were found dead in one of the rooms, there’s no marks on them. I need you to come right away.” Said George, “Get your bag or what ever it is you need, and come quickly.” “Ok, calm down, I'll get my things.” The doctor went back inside, got his bag then walked back down the street with George. He started shaking on the way back, worried in case the Inn got a bad name because of what had happened. Within a few minutes they were at the Inn and George showed him up to the room, he had to call Jack up to unlock the door. Jack got one of the staff to cover the bar while he went up to George and the doctor, and let them in. On opening the door the room was tidy and the bodies wasn't in the room. Jack and George stood there looking at each other then the doctor.

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“Well? Where are the bodies?” Said the doctor.“They should be here! Has anyone been in the room, Jack?” Said George looking at Jack.“The room was locked, I locked it myself no one should have been able to get in. The bodies should be still here.” Said Jack, he went back to the top of the stairs and called Paltrow and Staigo up. “Has anyone been near this room?” He asked them when they got there.“We never saw anyone go near it. We’ve been watching the door all morning, is there anything wrong?” Said Paltrow, as they came to the room where the others were.“The bodies have gone, that’s what's wrong.” Said Jack, going over to George, “Are you sure no ones been in here?” Paltrow and Staigo were puzzled as they entered the room, it was tidy and there were no sign of the two bodies.“Where are the bodies then? If they are dead they should still be here.” Said the doctor, “Looks to me like there wasn't any thing here. I’m going back home, it doesn't look like I'm needed here. Try not to waste my time again, George.” Said the doctor looking at George as though he didn’t believe him.“But doc, they were here, I’m not making it up.” Said George, “Really, they were in this room.” He followed the doctor out of the room and down the stairs protesting loudly that there were two dead people in the room.“All right, when you find them, call me. Until then, leave it.” Said the doctor, walking out the door. Every one that was in the bar at the time, sat there looking at him questioningly.“What are you looking at? Get about your business now.” Said George, he could feel himself getting angry, instead of going back up stairs to the others he went through to his quarters to cool off. He went through the living room and into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks. The two bodies were in the middle of his kitchen. He rushed back to the door and shouted the three men to get there quick. Jack, Paltrow and Staigo rushed downstairs to George, and he took them through to the kitchen.“Guess where those bodies are? Some one has put them in my kitchen. How the heck they were able to do that I’ve no idea.” Said George as he took them through.“What on earth? They should be still in that room up stairs, right, we’ll stay here Paltrow, Staigo, go and get the doctor back we'll stay here this time and make sure that they don't go any where this time.” Said Jack, Paltrow and Staigo left the Travellers Arms and went after the doctor, he hadn’t gone far they caught up with him in no time at all, and got him to come back to the Inn. He stood there protesting for a while then agreed to follow them back to the Inn. They entered the Inn and the two men took him through to George's quarters, this time the two bodies where still there.“Obviously this isn’t where they were, but they are now. Is this the condition they were in when you first found them?” said the doctor.“Yes they were. Thing that I don’t get is how the heck they got here in the time that it took me to get to your home and back here I don’t know.” Said George, as the doctor got down on one knee and started checking them there and then. “Looks like they died in their sleep.” Said the doctor.“Thing is, doc, both of them were on the floor in the room. They wasn’t discovered till this morning.” Said George.“Sounds like they had both got out of bed or fell out, do you think they were trying to get away from something?” Said the doctor.“It's possible.” Said George, “We had a bit of trouble here last night.”“What sort? Your guests wasn't fighting were they?” Said the doctor.“Nothing like that, if any start fighting, they get put out straight away. We think it may have something to do with some ghosts that were in here last night.” Said George.

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“What? Ghosts? They don't fight they just walk around the area and don't bother any one.” Said the doctor, “You're expecting me to believe that they ‘killed’ these two people?” said the doctor.“No, it’s just, well it’s too hard to explain right now.” Said George. The doctor stood up, looked at George and shook his head.“Right, now that the bodies have turned up, I’ll have them taken over to one of the healing buildings so I can find out what they died from, if I can.” Said the doctor, “Have you any one here that can help me with the bodies to the building?”“Sure, I’ll just get some of the staff to come through to give you a hand.” Said George, he walked through to the bar then the kitchen asking two of the staff from both area's to go to his quarters to the doctor and help him take the bodies that were there to the healing building for him. Jack, Paltrow and Staigo waited in his living room while he looked at them.Just as the staff walked into George's quarter's the two bodies disappeared right in front of the doctor, George and the four men.“What's going on? Where have they gone, things don’t just disappear.” Said the doctor, almost falling out the door of the kitchen.“What on earth?” said George. Jack, Paltrow and Staigo rushed through to the kitchen bumping into the doctor.“What's going on, where are the bodies?” Said Jack.“They've just disappeared into thin air.” Said George, “There definitely must be some thing going on that we don't know about. Dead bodies just don't disappear.”“I... I'm getting out of here.” Said the doctor, “Get out of my way get out of the way, all of you. You find any more dead bodies lying around, get some one else to come here.” He said rushing out the Inn. “Looks like you’re going to have to call your friend, find out if it’s been happening where he is.” Said Jack looking at Paltrow, "First ghosts around, now bodies that can disappear! This is not normal. Some one has to be behind this." “Your right, I haven’t had a chance to contact Emberdean yet. I’ll do it now, come on Staigo, you can help explain.” Said Paltrow, “You too, Jack. George, I think you better sit down with a hot drink or something, I’ll get one of your waiters to come through with some thing, alright?” George stood there, looking shocked at what just happened. He’d seen things in his life that would curl any body’s hair and toes, but nothing like this. Jack approached George and helped him over to the settee in his living room.“Sit down, George, take half an hour, I should be back down soon. Are you going to be all right?” Said Jack.“I... I don't know, this sort of thing has never happened around me before.” Said George, “Bodies disappearing then reappearing, then disappearing again.” The four men that had come through to help take the bodies out were still stood around totally astounded at what had happened.“What just happened?” Said Albert.“Don't ask me that was the weirdest thing that I ever saw.” Said Frank. George realised that the four men were still there, and told them to get back to work and forget about what had happened.Up stairs in the room where Paltrow and Staigo were staying, Staigo got the mirror out and contacted Emberdean. Within a few minutes, Emberdean's face was reflected in the mirror.“We seem to have a bit of a problem here, and you’re not going to believe what it is. We haven’t come across any thing like it before either.” Said Staigo, “This morning we found two people dead in one of the rooms at the Travellers Arms, George got the doctor while the room was locked and by the time that the doctor arrived and entered the room, they had disappeared. George went to his quarters for some thing and they were in there. How they got there nobody knows, thing is, not long after we got the

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doctor back they disappeared.” Emberdean looked surprised then shocked as what Staigo told him sank in.“Dead disappearing then reappearing some where else? That's not right, I haven’t heard of any thing like that happening before, least I don't think so. You should have gone to Jacks home and asked him to look through his information he may have some thing there.” Said Emberdean. “That's just it, we don’t think he has. Check your records would you, and we’ll go round to Jacks home, see if we can find any thing there.” Said Staigo, “Has any thing like this happened there at all?”“Not that I've heard. If there has, I’ll contact you.” Said Emberdean, Staigo waved his hand over the mirror, and turned to Jack and Paltrow. “Have you got any thing that covers this at your home?” He asked, Jack shook his head.“I doubt it very much. I don’t remember reading any thing along the lines of bodies being moved from locked rooms to another place.” Said Jack, “It’ll be a good idea to check though.” He said getting up off one of the beds and heading for the door, “You want to come or are you going to check the room where the bodies were originally?”“Think I’ll check the room, see if I can find any thing. That’s if the room hasn’t been locked up.” Said Paltrow, “There might be something in there, but it’s doubtful. Have you got the keys just in case it has been locked?” Jack took the keys out of his pocket, and walked down the hallway with Staigo and Paltrow behind him, trying the door, it was still unlocked he let Staigo and Paltrow in to look around.“I’ll go home and go through my things to see if I can find any thing. I’ll let George know that I’m going first and make sure he’s all right before I go. If you find any thing in here, let me know.” Said Jack. He left the two men to go through the room, hoping they would find some thing to go on even if it was just a small bit of information, he knew that they would be able to work some thing out together.Down stairs, Jack walked into George's quarter’s to find him still sitting where he’d left him, he was shaking, and looked as if he’d broke out into a cold sweat, one of the staff had gone through before he came down and gave him a small tankard of ale. Jack stood in front of him. “George? George, are you all right?” said Jack.“Demons around, go away Demon. Leave now.” Said George, Jack looked at him again.“George? Are you all right?” He said, stooping down in front of him, George looked pale and there was a strange dark glow around him.“George. Are you awake?” Said Jack, George wasn’t looking to good, taking the drink off him and placing it on the table, he ran to the bottom of the stairs and called Staigo and Paltrow to come down quickly, there was something wrong. Both the men came to the doorway of the room and looked down at Jack.“What wrong?” Said Staigo.“There’s something wrong with George, I can’t get him to answer.” Said Jack, both the men ran down stairs to George’s quarters to find him in the same state as Jack was the day before, this time there was a difference.“How long has he been like this?” Said Paltrow, going over and stooping in front of George.“I’ve no idea, I came in to tell him that I was going home, and he was like this. He was telling demons to go away.” Said Jack. Staigo looked around the room and noticed the drink on the table.“Is this what George was drinking when you came in?” he said as he picked it up.“Yes he was, it should be just an ale.” Said Jack, Staigo smelled it, it smelled like ale, looked like ale, and when he tasted it, it tasted like ale, but there was a bitter after taste to it, “I think it’s the ale, where's he getting it from?”

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“He’s been using the same people for years, there hasn’t been any change that he hasn’t told me about. If he does, he’ll talk to me first, and we always check it together. Is there a problem with that one?” Said Jack.“Definitely, it’s got all the right smells and tastes, but there’s also a bitter taste to it. I think it’s been tampered with or some thing was added before you got it. Looking at George, that is how we found you yesterday.” Said Staigo.“There's some thing strange about George, there’s more than just a far away look, there seems to be a dark glow around him.” Said Paltrow, Staigo approached them and took a good look at George.“You’re right, there is a darkness around him. Have we any thing that can counter act this?” Said Staigo.“Possibly, I'd have to check my bag. That’s some thing else I haven’t done yet, I haven’t taken any of my things out of my bag yet. I’ll go to our room and have a look, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Said Paltrow getting up and leaving George’s quarters and going to his room, leaving Jack and Staigo to look after George. As Paltrow walked through the bar, the four men asked him what was going on, Paltrow told them that there was nothing for them to worry about he was just helping Jack. “Do you think there may be something wrong with the ale?” Said Jack.“Could be. There could also be some one tampering with it, who I don’t know.” Said Staigo, “We're going to have to find out if it has been, as it’s affected you then George. It may have affected those two people that were in the room up stairs.” He put the ale back down on the table and waited for Paltrow to come back. “I’ll go to the bar and make sure every things running alright, and find out who brought him the ale, then I might be able to find out which barrel it came from.” Said Jack. Just then George started thrashing around as if in a trance.“Demons! Demons get out of here. Die demons.” Said George.“I wish Paltrow would hurry.” Said Staigo going over to George, this time keeping his distance in case he hit him. George looked worse than Jack did when this happened to him, and he was looking even darker now than before. Jack walked through to the bar and every thing seemed to be all right, the four men that had been needed were still standing in the bar talking amongst themselves, they stopped when they saw Jack coming.“Is there any thing wrong, guys? Shouldn’t you lot be working? You two get back to the kitchen and you two get back to work here.” He said. The four men stood there looking at each other then Jack.“Certainly, sir, but there’s some thing we want to know first. Is George all right, we heard him shouting just now. And those bodies in his kitchen, what happened there?” said Frank. “It's got us rather worried, you see, is the same thing going to happen to us?” said Albert.“What's happening now is the least of your worries, you could be looking to be fired if you don't get back to work.” Said Jack, “Now get going, you don’t want George to fire you without any pay do you?” The men shook their heads and started heading back to work, one of them stopped and came back to Jack.“Look, I know some things going on, do you need any help with it?” he said.“I’ll let you know. Who served George with the ale in his quarters?” Said Jack.“Donno took it through, who poured it I don’t know.” Said Fred.“Ok, thanks. As for helping, I may need some help moving the casket of ale in the cellar, where is he now?” Said Jack.“I’m not sure, he was around not so long ago. He might have gone to the kitchen.” Said Fred, “I’ll get back to work now.”“All right, Fred, thanks.” Said Jack as he walked over to the kitchen, as he got half way across the room Donno came out of the kitchen. Jack called him over.“Donno, who gave you the ale earlier for George?” “Derek pulled it for me, I just took it through. Is there a problem?” Said Donno.

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“Just a small one, there could be a problem with the ale, thanks Donno.” Said Jack, as he went to the bar and spoke to Derek. Going round the bar, he asked him to show him which pump he used to pull the ale for George, Derek showed him which one it was then he went down to the cellar. Looking for the right pipe leading down from the bar, he checked all the barrels that were by the wall. At first he couldn't see any thing, swinging one of the barrels around slightly he thought he saw some thing move. He moved it again and some thing ran from behind the barrel and ran to the other side of the cellar making Jack jump. He spun round to find out where it went but couldn’t find it, he started looking around the cellar moving the casks and barrels, nothing moved. He put the barrels back where they were and went back to George's quarters to find out if he was any better and if Paltrow and Staigo had been able to help him.“Have you been able to help George, Staigo?” Said Jack, as he walked into the living room, “I think we have got a problem, something moved in the cellar when I moved one of the barrels.” “Do you know how many jugs of ale’s George has had today? What we have don't seem to be working.” Said Staigo.“Are you sure? I think he’s only had the one. And Derek pulled it. I’ve been down the cellar, and I’m sure there's something down there.” Said Jack, going over towards George and looking at him. He still looked as though he was in a trance, “What did you use on me when I was like this?” Paltrow showed him what they had and what they had just used on his brother. “And it hasn't worked?” Said Jack.“’Fraid not, why I don't know, it should have done.” Said Paltrow, “Has George had any thing wrong with him lately? A cold, cough or any thing else?” Jack shook his head.“Nothing, he's been fine. Did you contact Emberdean?” Said Jack.“I did, nothing like this has been happening there, not to his knowledge any way.” Said Paltrow getting up and going to the table.“This is puzzling.” Said Staigo, “Have you got your book with you Paltrow.”“I’ve got a couple, but I’m not sure if I've picked up the right ones.” Said Paltrow, “Have you been able to get home Jack?”“Not yet, there’s been too many hold ups for me to get there. Look through the books that you’ve got, if there’s nothing in them, I’ll have to go home and look. Even if there’s something that can break this for now, I may still need to get there.” Said Jack, “I don't think he’s got any crystals here for this room or the Inn. Wait, my staff, I left it in the bedroom.” He went through to the bedroom where he slept and got his staff, the crystal in it was glowing. ‘Oh no, not again!’ he thought, he said a chant to make the crystal glow, so that as he walked through George’s home it would show up any thing that was there. It did, there were ghosts every where yet again.“Shalambar Soondred!” Said Jack as he walked into the living room, and once again there were bolt of lightening flashing out of the crystal hitting the ghosts simultaneously. The ghosts gave a screech as they disappeared. George started thrashing about again and almost fell off the settee.“What on earth? I thought you got rid of those last night?” Said Paltrow.“I did, I know I did.” Said Jack, “The only thing that I haven’t done is go around the town with the staff, but I don't want to worry the people in the town. I’ll have to find some other way of protecting the town for the time being.” As the three men were talking, George seemed to come around, and stood up.“That must be the worst jug of ale that I’ve drunk. I’ve got a hangover now. Where did we get it?”He said.“George? You’re all right! Thank goodness for that, apart from your hangover are you all right?” Said Jack.

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“Of course I’m all right, where you been all morning?” Said George, he looked at Paltrow and Staigo, “What are you doing in here, I thought you were going to bed.” “We have been to bed, this is the following morning don’t you remember what happened since last night? About the two bodies, the doctor coming, Jack staying the night?” Said Staigo.“No, it’s a bit vague, I can’t really remember much.” Said George.“I think we've got some thing in the cellar, George, I don't think its rats.” Said Jack, “I didn’t see what it was it ran past me to fast. I’m just going back down there now.” Picking up the staff and leaving George’s quarters with the three men following him, George shut the door on his way out. In the cellar, the crystal started glowing again, Paltrow started saying a chant that he knew while it was glowing and it showed up some thing smaller than the ghost that were in his part of the Inn. “Shalambar Soondred!” Said Jack, raising his staff high, the crystal glowed and sparkled and nothing happened. “It’s not working Jack, try some thing else.” Said Staigo, as some of the ghosts started to go towards the walls.“Albaran Storbaran.” Said Jack as he raised his staff again, this time the staff glowed brightly and shot out bolts of lightening which hit those that were still in the room, and left dust every where this time.“Looks like we’re dealing with something different this time.” Said Paltrow, “I wonder where these things are coming from.”“The extension wasn’t built over or near graves or grave yard was it?” Said Staigo.“I doubt it very much, the grave yards have normally been built just on the outskirts of the town. So I doubt that there would be any thing around that would cause this sort of thing to happen.” Said Jack, “Looks like I’ll have to get home now, I hope, so long as nothing else happens here.”“We’ll come with you.” Said Staigo, “Don't forget your Staff, we’ll know if there’s any more of those things around if it starts glowing.” The three men went back up to the bar, several of the men that worked there were gathered near the doorway, they all wanted to know what was going on. Some of them wanted to know if they’d got rats or mice down there.“Don’t worry nothing like that is down there, those of you who are scared of them, it was some thing totally different.” Said Jack.“What if one of us needs to go down there? Will we be safe?” said Frank.“What do any of you need to go into this cellar for? How many need to get any wine or change the casks of ale? George and I normally do that, now go about your jobs and leave the cellar and any problems to us and George, all right?” Said Jack. The men looked a little disgruntled, but went back to their jobs. The three men left the Inn and went over to Jacks home.Every thing was as he had left it the day before, so he thought. The staff started to glow again, and Jack chanted one of the spells that he knew along with a protection spell, the staff flashed a bright yellow and his home was protected. He then made the staff shoot out the bolts of lightening which killed any thing that was still in his home.“We’ve got to find out what’s behind all this.” Said Jack.

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Chapter Three.

“Wait here for a while, I’m going to get all my information out, it’ll take a while.” Said Jack as he walked through his home and disappeared. “All your information? How much have you got?” Said Staigo, there was no answer as Jack had gone, leaving the two men standing there.“Do you think he’ll have the right information?” Said Paltrow.“I’ve no idea, I don’t even know how much he’s got or what he’s got.” Said Staigo, just as Jack came through with four small boxes.“Start looking through these will you while I get the rest.” Said Jack, slightly breathless then disappeared again into the hallway. “Jack.” Said Staigo, as he disappeared, “Looks like we’ll have to wait till he stops disappearing, I’ve no idea how much stuff he's got.” A few minutes later, Jack came into the living room again with some more boxes.“Is that it Jack?” Said Paltrow, Jack shook his head, and disappeared again saying there was still a couple more boxes to get and to start looking through what he’s already brought in to the room. Staigo and Paltrow started looking through the boxes that were there. A few minutes later he came back through dragging two big boxes behind him.“I think that’s all the boxes, but seeing that we don’t know who’s behind it we’ll have to get through this lot as quickly as possible. What about Emberdean, has any thing like this happened were he is at all?” Said Jack.“Nothing like this has happened there, he doesn’t know who’s behind it at the moment as he’s heard nothing.” Said Paltrow, opening one of the boxes. “Right, let’s have a look through this lot, I know that I’ve got more information, I’m hoping what we need is in here. There might be a reference to some thing in these boxes if not, I’ll get the rest. Surely this isn’t the only place that this is happening?” Said Jack.“At the moment it does.” Said Paltrow, looking through the papers and documents in the box. “I could do with a drink, do you want a hot drink at all?” Said Jack.“Why not, so long as it’s not the ale heated up.” Said Staigo, smiling, “We don’t want to go the same way as you and your brother have recently, I need to keep my wits about me.” Jack went into the kitchen to make a drink and pottered about the kitchen getting things together. As he opened one of the cupboard doors, a small shadow jumped out and flew past his head making him drop one of his cups.

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“What the heck!” he said, “How did that get in there?” Paltrow and Staigo came into the kitchen and saw the shadow run to the wall and disappear through it. Both the men tried to follow it but didn’t see where it went once it got outside.“Those things seem to be getting every where.” Said Paltrow, “Where did that one go?” Just then there was a rustling in the bushes nearby, Paltrow approached them cautiously then moved part of them. Right in front of him was the shadow, cowering under the leaves. Paltrow reached down to pick it up, but his hand passed right through it.“Staigo, over here. That thing is under the bush.” Staigo went over to Paltrow, bent down and saw the creature.“Don't try picking it up, your hand will pass through it. I wonder what it's supposed to be.” Said Paltrow, “It looks like some sort of creature, I can’t make out what sort though. Have we got any thing that will make it more solid?” “Don't think so, knowing what damage has been almost caused by some thing like this already, I don’t think that would be wise.” Said Staigo standing up and moving away from the bush, Paltrow stood up and started heading for the house.“I think we better leave it alone till we can find out more.” Said Paltrow, Staigo followed him.Jack was standing in the doorway watching them.“What was it, any idea?” “Looked like some sort of shadowy creature, I don’t know what sort though.” Said Paltrow, “We need to keep checking your boxes, I’ll check your kitchen and make sure you haven’t got any more of them in there.” He said entering the kitchen and having a look in all the cupboards and corners, and finding nothing else there, “Lets have a look in your boxes, looks like there’s some thing else we have to find information on.” In the living room, they carried on looking through the information Jack had, while he made a drink and took it through. Going through all of them, they never found any thing in the ones he brought through. “There’s nothing in here about those ghosts.” Said Paltrow.“I’ll just go and get the others.” Said Jack, picking up a couple of the boxes and taking them back with him. A few minutes later he came back with some more.“If the information isn’t here, I’ll have to check the other room.” Said Jack taking the lid off then looking through what was in there.Twenty minutes later they were still looking and never found any thing. Putting everything back in the boxes, he picked some of them up and took them back to his hidden room, then entered another one. He entered the living room with some more boxes, he couldn’t believe how much information he had, as he picked up the boxes they had already gone through and took them back out of the room. Going back into the second room, he brought out some more boxes. “Let’s try these ones.” Said Jack putting them down on the table, taking the lids off he started going through every bit of information that was there and still found nothing.“It doesn’t look as though you have any thing, Jack. How about your library, would anything be in there.” Said Paltrow.“I never thought of there, I’ll go check.” Said Jack, he went into the library with Paltrow and Staigo following him, they started looking at the books that he had on the shelves, Paltrow going round the upper floor and Staigo going round the bottom. Jack opened up one of the panels in the column, and found some paper work. Going through it, he finally found something about what was going on, but not how to get rid of it.“I found some thing here, some thing like this has happened before, but not how they were got rid of.” Said Jack “There’s a reference to a book, I’m not sure if I have it. ‘Serpents and Ghosts’ it’s called.”

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“It's up here, you’ve got quite a book collection, just about every book I’ve heard about, some of them I didn’t know existed.” Said Paltrow, coming down the stairs with the book in his hand, giving it to Jack.“Great, I thought that went missing when the place was trashed a few years ago.” Said Jack taking the book and looking through it. He found a chapter on ghosts of all sizes, and descriptions on them, but not how to get rid of them. There were notes at the bottom of the page referring to two other books.“This book refers to two other books which I don’t know if I’ve got, I’ve got that many.” Said Jack.“What are they called? You have a selection about what we’ve come across up here.” Said Paltrow. “One is called ‘Unforeseen’, the other is called ‘Devils Ghosts’. I don’t even recognise the titles, I don’t know if I have them.” Said Jack. Paltrow looked around the top floor while Staigo walked around the bottom half, both the men found the books and brought them over to Jack. Going through each book in turn, he found what he needed. Both the books had a way of getting rid of the ghosts, the one book, ‘Unforeseen’, even said that they normally started roaming around prior to or after some sort of catastrophe. Jack showed the two men what he’d found.“That explains it. We had catastrophe not so long ago with those two men and those things they created, that could be the cause of these things we have now.” Said Staigo. “I think that was to long ago, there could be something around that no one is aware of.” Said Paltrow, “Let me look at that book, Jack.” Jack passed him the book, Staigo picked the other one up off the table and read through what was in there. “Both of these books seem to be connected to each other.” Said Staigo. “In what way?” Said Jack, “Books don’t normally connect to each other in any way, they may make references to other books, but hardly ever connect to each other.” “He’s right, there seems to be parts missing in this book, but it’s nothing to do with pages. Look at this.” Said Paltrow showing one part of the book, “This paragraph here and the next one don’t make sense.”“Nether do these here in this book, now if we put them together they do.” Said Staigo putting his book next to the one that Paltrow had, “There’s even a mark by each paragraph that may mean that it refers to the other book. There’s even three letters and a number by the last sentence.”“Same here, three letters and a number. What are the chances of that? I must congratulate you on your choice of books, Jack. You must do more reading, matter of fact why don’t you make a list of the books, then you will know what you have.” Said Paltrow. “Make notes, that would be another good idea. Does it say how to get rid of them?” Said Jack.“What we have been doing, using your staff with a crystal in it. But, it says here that if they keep coming back to use a different one, it recommends a green one or a red one. It just depends on which one's your dealing with at the time.” Said Staigo.“I’ll go get them.” Said Jack, “Now where did I put that box of crystals.” He said leaving the room and disappearing again, a few minutes later he returned with his box of crystals.“These are all my crystals, I’ll just change the one in my staff.” Said Jack.“I think you’ll have to change both.” Said Staigo.“There’s only the one in my staff, I think.” Said Jack getting the staff from the corner of the living room, “Sorry your right Staigo, there is two but I’ve only got one in there.” Correcting him self. “You can use both red and green or two of the same colour.” Said Staigo, as Jack started going through them. “Think I’ll put in a green and a red. That way I should be able to get them all at the same time.” Said Jack taking out the white crystal and putting a green and a red

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crystal in the top of the staff, “Right, let’s go and see if we can find the rest of those things and get rid of them. Then I’ll have to make sure that George is alright.” He said making for the front door and heading for the town square.“Why are you starting at the town square?” said Paltrow.“Well, if there are any around, I can work them out of the town rather than work them into the town.” Said Jack, “That book never said any thing about which way to go did it?”“Let me check.” Said Paltrow getting the book out, looking through it he found the page where it had mentioned the crystals, but there was nothing about where to start. He went to Staigo and asked him to look in the book that he’d brought with him to see if it said any thing about the best place where to start. Staigo got the book out to check, he told them that it didn't say where the best place was to start, and to follow your own instincts when it came to getting rid of these type of things. They approached Jack and told him to carry on as he was as there was no set way according to either of the books. “Lets get started, you can either walk behind me or either side, either way if we say the same chant or spell, we should be rid of them.” Said Jack. The three men started walking round the town square first, past all the homes and the shops, Jack holding the staff up high and repeating after him one of the chants that Jack always used. After the square, they started walking down one of the streets and turned right, and walked round the houses turning right at each corner till they got to where they started. The next time they turned left down one of the streets, then kept turning left till they got to where they started again. They did this time and time again till they got to the edge of the town. Every street they had walked down the red and green crystals in the staff had been glowing, now and again shooting out a spark at a home or in the street. When they got to the edge of town, both the crystals glowed at the same time, looking as though they were about to explode, they shot out a hue of gold and showed up what looked like a rag tag bunch of ghosts of all shapes and sizes. One of them looked as though it was approaching the three men, and stood about six feet away from them. It stood there for awhile, then it seemed to get on its knees with its arms up in the air as if wanting to be spared. Jack could just barely hear what it was saying, he got Paltrow to hold the staff while he went forward to them, as he got closer he could just hear what it was saying.“I know you can’t spare any of us, or let any of us go. We were told this area could be lived in by us, we didn’t know at the time that people lived here. Once we got here, we found that we couldn’t move on, we’re sorry we invaded you. Now do what you have to do.” Said the ghost.“Who told you that you could live here?” Said Jack.“Some one called Pascatt, he lives in a land called Generis.” Said the ghost.“Generis? I never heard of that land, where is it?” Said Jack.“About forty leagues away from Blazing Broog.” Said the ghost.“Why would he tell you that it was alright to live here? Have you any idea what he’s up too? He wouldn’t just tell you to come here would he?” Said Jack.“I don’t think he would tell us mere ghosts, but I did here him mention something about getting revenge on someone. A family and their friends that live some where near here.” Said the ghost.“I don’t suppose that you caught the name did you?” Said Jack.“I think they used the name of Dawson or Robertson they want to get revenge on.” Said the ghost.“Are there any more of you around in this village?”“No, we are all that are left.” Said the ghost.“I’m not going to apologise for getting rid of you as long as you know why I'm doing it.” Said Jack, he walked back over to Paltrow and Staigo and took the staff back off Paltrow and raised it as high as he could and said his chant.

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Within seconds all the ghosts were gone, leaving dust floating on the air to be blown away by the wind. Staigo and Paltrow backed up a little as they watched the dust being blown out of the town by the wind. “Looks like we may have some trouble, but it’s hard to tell.” Said Jack, turning round to the two men, “The one ghost told me that someone told them that they could live here, the name he used was Pascatt.”“What? Why on earth would some one do that?” Said Paltrow.“He said something about taking revenge on a family in this area.” Said Jack, “I’ll have to go and check and see if I’ve got any information on him, but this sounds like some thing recent.” All three men went back to Jacks home, and Jack looked through the things he’d left out, there was no mention of the man named Pascatt. The boxes he left out, he started putting them away before going through the other boxes he had in turn. He had nothing that mentioned him in any way. He went back to his living room and told Paltrow and Staigo.“There is no mention of this man any where in the information that I have. It’s a little strange, there’s usually mention of relatives to any one that has either given cause for trouble, or help over the years.” Said Jack.“What about the books in the library? Or the columns, have you any thing in there?” Said Staigo.“It’s doubtful. Most of the information I have is usually stored in the other room. I’ll have a look any way, I’m sure that there's nothing. Failing that, you’ll have to contact Emberdean and ask him if he knows any thing.” Said Jack going into his library, he opened the panel in the column and looked through the first lot of information that was there, there wasn’t any thing that mentioned him, not even a reference. Going over to the other two in turn, he checked all the information, and finally found one reference to some one having a child, but there was no name mentioned, and who had it. “Found something but, I don’t think it would be connected. Someone had a child, but there’s no name for him or her, and there’s no indication of who actually had it, the parents are not mentioned here. Just some vague information on they had to keep moving around a lot, as no one wanted them living in the same area. The people who had the child eventually lived near some mountains near Melthon.” Said Jack, “But that’s miles away from Generis.” “That's strange. I’ve never heard of anyone roaming the land on their own, or just a small family going from place to place. I know there’s no information like that held at Emberdean’s or any of his other sources.” Said Paltrow. “Leave it for now, then. It doesn’t sound as though we have a lot to go on, I’ll get in touch with Emberdean and ask if he’s got any one he can send to Generis and Melthon to gather information. Come on, Paltrow, lets get back to the Inn I need a drink any way.” Said Staigo. “I’ll go too, I want to check on George and make sure he’s alright. It’s about time I did some work too.” Said Jack. All three left Jacks home and headed for the Travellers Arms. Jack checked in with George first, he looked better than he did earlier, Jack told him that it had been ghosts that had been causing the trouble and they had got rid of them. He told him that Paltrow and Staigo were going to contact their friend to get some information. “Where did the ghosts come from any way?” Said George.“Apparently, some one in Generis told them to come here, that it was alright for them to live here or some thing like that, once they got here and found that people lived here, they couldn’t get away.” Said Jack. “Did they say who said they could come here?” Said George.“Some one named Pascatt, I'm led to believe. But that could be a ruse. How many people over the years have tried to take over here, or another part of this country either side of the river?” Said Jack.

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“There have been quite a few, most of them weren’t successful. I think I might have some information on him, I’ll have a look when I get the chance. Some staff will be in shortly to take over the bar, I’ll go and look then.” Said George.“Ok, thanks George. I’ll get to work over there, looks like we’re getting busy and things are mounting up a bit.” Said Jack, he walked round the room collecting some of the empty glasses and plates, taking the glasses behind the bar and the plates into the kitchen putting them near the sink ready to be washed up by one of the men. In the mean time, Paltrow and Staigo were up stairs in their room contacting Emberdean.“Have you anyone that can go to Generis and Melthon? We have come across some thing here that suggests that some one from there sent the ghosts that were around here.” Said Staigo.“Alfedo was about to leave here with his men and come to Ronwin Hurtz, I’ll ask him to go there. Any idea who you’re looking for?” Said Emberdean.“Rumour has it that it’s some one called Pascatt. We haven’t heard any thing about him or who he’s related too, all we know is that he sent some ghosts here telling them that they could live here. When they tried to leave, they couldn’t.” Said Staigo.“Is rumour all you have to go on?” Said Emberdean.“No, one of them told Jack. He hasn’t got any thing at his home to tell us any thing about him, just some vague reference to some people that lived in the areas of Generis and Melthon, and they had one child or some thing like that. There was no mention of the child's name though, it’s possible that it could be this guy that we’ve heard of.” Said Staigo.“Alright, I haven’t heard any thing about him my self, as far as I know, no one here has either. I’ll get Alfedo to go to Generis he may want to come to the Travellers Arms first. Tell him what you can.” Said Emberdean.“Will do, I hope he isn’t out to cause this town any trouble. We’ll see you when we get back or sooner.” Said Staigo waving his hand over the mirror, “Let’s go down and have some thing to eat, I'm hungry.” He said, looking at Paltrow.“Me too. I feel as though I haven’t eaten since yesterday, I need a drink too, lets go.” Said Paltrow. The two men went down to the bar and asked for a menu and ordered something to eat and asked for two ales, then sat at a table near the corner of the room so they could keep an eye on who ever came in the door.

Anthony came down stairs with his bags and asked to check out, he was with two of his friends. “It’s about time we went home, we have worked to do. We’ll be back at some point and bring our families with us next time.” Said Anthony.“That would be nice. I hope we will have some room for you when you come back.” Said George, taking some money off him and getting him to sign out, “Have a safe journey home.”“We will, thank you for having us.” Said Anthony. All three men picked up their baggage and left the Inn and went round to the stables to get their horses, then headed for home, little realising what was in store for them when they got back.A few minutes later, Elronda came in through the door and approached the bar and asked for some ale. After he was served it, he looked around the room and spotted Paltrow and Staigo in the corner of the room, he went over to the table and sat down with them.“Hello, Staigo, Paltrow, haven’t seen you two for quite some time, how have you been?” He said.“Elronda! You’re early, we weren’t expecting you for a while, at least another two or three days. I only contacted Lord Emberdean yesterday, and he said that you would be coming with your men.” Said Paltrow.“I know, I had already left. I was visiting relatives not far from here. They’d heard that there was some thing was going on near Dithering Dell, I’ve been there and

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checked things out there didn’t seem to be too much going on that I could see.” Said Elronda.“What sort of things?” Said Paltrow.“Ghostly apparitions, people getting drunk on a tankard of ale. Some people acting weird, those sorts of things, when I got there, there didn’t seem to be any thing out of the ordinary.” Said Elronda.“That does sound a bit weird, but saying that we had the same sort of thing going on here. It effected Jack, then his brother George. We found out that it was some ghosts that were going about the town, they had been told they could live here without realising that people lived here already then they couldn’t leave. Jack and George thought they were being attacked by demons.” Said Paltrow. “That's what I’d heard had been happening there too. Any idea what's going on?” Said Elronda.“We've been trying to find out. The only thing we’ve been able to find out is that a couple that used to live near Generis or Melthon had a child. There’s no mention of a name for them or the child, we may have to go there and see if we can find out any thing about them. We haven’t any thing here, and Lord Emberdean hasn’t any thing either I've checked.” Said Paltrow. “Emberdean said that he would be asking Alfedo and his men to go and check it out.” Said Staigo. “He has, I think he’s on his way there now, how long he’s going to be I’ve no idea.” Said Elronda, “I must say that this Inn is looking really nice, it looks different somehow.” “It is, apparently, they’ve had that many customers since we left that George has had an extension built and extended the kitchen, he’s got extra staff working here too.” Said Staigo.“Great. Home away from home. Have they had extra rooms added on?” Said Elronda.“Of course, the amount of people that have been coming here has been tremendous. George told us that since they reopened, people have been coming from far and wide to stay here and they have been really full most days, we were really lucky to get a room here.” Said Paltrow. “Sounds as though I’ll have to check in quickly, I’ll be back in a minute.” Said Elronda, getting up from the table and going over to the bar and asked for a room.“Let me look to see if I have a room, we’ve been very busy of late. Oh, my! Its Elronda isn’t it? I thought I recognised you, when did you get here?” Said Maurice.“About half an hour ago, have you got any rooms here?” Said Elronda.“Sorry sir, yes we have. Would you like to book in now before they go? There’s no telling how long some of the rooms are going to be empty.” Said Maurice, passing him the book to sign in, he then found a key to a room for him.“Have you a menu or something?” Said Elronda, Maurice passed him one from under the counter.“Think I’ll have the beef. How long will that be?” Said Elronda.“Not long, it should be with you in a few minutes. Thank you, sir.” Said Maurice. Elronda thanked him, and went back to join Paltrow and Staigo. Shortly after he’d signed in some more people came in and wanted rooms for a couple of days. As soon as he heard that Elronda was at his Inn, George came round to welcome him. “Elronda! Welcome. Welcome back to the Travellers Arms, my friend. How have you been? Have you booked a room yet? How long will you be staying? Are your men with you?” Said George.“Whoa, whoa! George, I’m only here for a visit, you don’t have to get that excited. I’ve been all right, I am booked in, and I’m not sure how long how long I’m staying for, yet. I may be expected to join Alfedo at some point. He’s gone to find some information at Generis and Melthon.” Said Elronda, “My men aren’t with me at the moment, I was visiting family, I went to Dithering Dell on the way here, there had

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been some strange reports coming from there. It seems you had the same type problems here, with ghosts.” Said Elronda.“Yes we did. Jack managed to be rid of them though.” Said George, “Would you like ale, my friend?”“Would love another one. It’s just as good as before, as a matter of fact its better. Have you been adding something extra to it?” Said Elronda, George laughed and said that he hadn’t. George went over to the bar and got another drink for Elronda, and took it over to him. He sat with the three men for a while talking about the things that had been happening over the last four years. George had almost forgot the time, when he turned round and realised that the Inn was getting full, he excused himself and got back to work, promising to talk to him later if he had time. Some of the people that were coming in recognised Elronda and spoke to him before going to the bar or talking to other friends.A short while later when Jack had finished in the kitchen, he came through to the bar to help out there. Walking around collecting the empty glasses and putting them onto the bar so they could be collected, when he bumped into Donno he asked him to take the glasses through to Jim to wash. When he got near to the table that Paltrow and Staigo were, he realised that there was a familiar face with them. Not believing his eyes, he walked over to them.“Elronda? Is it really you?” Said Jack with surprise, Elronda turned round to see Jack behind him.“Jack? How are you? I’m glad to see you.” He said getting up and gave him a hug and shook his hand as if he hadn’t seen him for a lot longer than four years.“I’m fine thanks, how have you been? You look rather worried, are you staying with us for a while? I hope you are, I would like to speak with you again.” Said Jack.“I would love to, I’ve been alright, looking worried? No more than usual, I’ve been visiting friends not far from here. Dithering Dell seemed to be having problems with ghosts, or something. George tells me that you had the same problem here and you managed to get rid of them.” Said Elronda.“Yes we did. They were told they could live here by some one called Pascatt, we haven’t much information about him really. The only thing we could dig up was some thing about a couple living in the Generis area many years ago.” Said Jack, “I was thinking of going there, but it’s having the time to go. I understand that Alfedo and his men are going.”“They are, I think they may stop over here for a while first, or on their way back, I’m not sure. Sit with us, Jack, and have a drink.” Said Elronda, offering him the seat next to him. Jack told him he’d just get himself a drink first and would be right back. Going over to the bar and getting himself a drink, he told George that he was going to have a break for a while and would be sitting with Elronda, Paltrow and Staigo for a while, as other staff were coming in George told him it was ok. “How is Alfedo these days, and Christo? I did here that they would like to visit us soon.” Said Jack.“They’re doing really well. They’ve both got women after them since we went back home, there must be at least a dozen after them.” Said Elronda, laughing.“What? I don’t believe it, is that a dozen each or a dozen in total?” Said Jack.“A dozen each, really, you should see them running down the street after them. All of them literally were throwing them selves at them. They’ve had to make body guards of some of their men.” Said Elronda.“What about you, have they been throwing them selves at you too?” Said Jack.“What, me? No, no way.” Said Elronda blushing. Jack started laughing.“Now I know your lying, come on tell me the truth. You have had the ladies coming after you too haven’t you? You lucky man, I’ve been here all this time, and no one has come after me.” Said Jack.“All right, all right you got me, they have.” Admitted Elronda, “I just didn’t want to make you jealous.”

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“Are you sure that none of the women have been coming after you?” Said Staigo.“Positive, why do you ask?” Said Jack.“Well, take a look around here, all this end seems to be full of women and they all keep looking at you. You mean to tell me that none of these women have approached you in any way, Jack?” Said Staigo, Jack looked around the bar of the Inn and realised there were more women than normal in the bar, all of them known to be single.“Now wait a minute, they could be all here because of Elronda you know, not me.” Said Jack, Paltrow shook his head.“Jack, are you blind? We noticed it when we came here the other day, there may be a few extra because Elronda’s here, but the majority are here because of you. You’ve not been well enough to notice what's been going on, have you?” Said Paltrow.“We’re not here to talk about the ladies, we’ve other things to talk about. Generis for one and Melthon for another, how are we going to sort out any information about those two places?” Said Jack, he was starting to feel uncomfortable. He did like the ladies, but he didn’t want to rush into things, and he was trying desperately to change the subject. The others started laughing while he was blushing. Paltrow nodded at Jack knowingly, as a couple of the women got up and walked towards them and stood behind Jack. Both of them said hello to Jack and kissed him on the cheek and then walked over to the bar, leaving Jack feeling flustered.“Now, you trying to tell me they’re all here for Elronda?” Said Paltrow. Jack shook his head.“Yes they are, they just did that to make him jealous.” Said Jack, taking a bit gulp of his ale, “Now, what news of Alfedo and Christo? What are they going to do?” “Alfedo should be on his way to Generis by now. Emberdean asked him to check some information out about some family or other. Other than that, they should come here after with the information they have gathered to give to you, Jack. It may help I’m not sure. I’ve never heard of any one from there, never even heard of the place before now.” Said Elronda.“Nobody seems to have heard of Generis or Melthon. What about you two?” Said Jack.“Not really, I heard one of the names mentioned, but that was years ago. But what was said about it wasn’t anything worth making note of.” Said Staigo. “Looks like we’ll have to wait for Alfedo to get here before we can make any plans as far as those two places are concerned.” Said Paltrow, they all nodded in agreement, and drank up. Just as they drank their ale’s one of the waiters came over with Elronda’s meal. Seeing Elronda eating made the others feel hungry, they decided to order another meal while the waiter was still there. They were all eating the finest meals the Inn served within a few minutes. Later, Staigo, Paltrow and Elronda decided to walk around the town for a while, and Jack went back to work around the Inn. Even though the staff had arrived to do their duties, Jack was still needed to collect the empty glasses and plates that were on the tables. Soon, the Inn became less busy as every one went home. Paltrow, Staigo and Elronda came back to the Inn just before George called for last drinks, all three headed for the bar and asked for ale’s.“Did you have a good time around the town?” Said George.“Yes we did, thanks, George. There were quite a lot of people around that remembered Elronda from the last time he was here, I don’t think we got as far as we wanted too as every one wanted to talk to him. Next time I think we’ll take the horses.” Said Staigo, “That way we could get away quicker if we see any one coming.”“That will definitely be a good idea.” Said Elronda he drank most of his ale, “You know, I’m starting to feel tired now. I think I’ll hit the hay. Goodnight, Paltrow, Staigo, goodnight George, see you all in the morning.” All three said good night to him, while Staigo and Paltrow sat at a near by table and took their time over the ales.

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Chapter Four

Jack went to the Travellers Arms about mid morning to help get things ready for lunchtime. Some of the staff left as they were having the afternoon off, as others were coming in to take over. He made sure that every one got started preparing the meat and vegetables, and the fruit, for the second courses, when the head chefs came in to take over from him and the other chef. Jack went into the bar to help serve behind the bar, he didn't notice four men walk in that were in Christo’s and Alfedo's armies, they approached the bar.“Where’s this best ale that I’ve heard about? You can't even get served at the best Inn in town either.” One of the men said trying to make sure that Jack couldn’t see his face.“Coming right up sir, how many would you like?” Said Jack.“Four of your finest, barkeep.” He said, as Jack started pulling the ale’s into glasses, he then took all the glasses to where the voice came from. A hand reached out and picked up one of the glasses and the man took a good mouthful.

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"You still pull a good ale here, Jack!” He said, putting some coins on the bar. Jack took the coins off the counter, he was about to walk away when he realised the man called him by name, he looked back at him and realised that it was Greg, with Paul, Charlie and Phillip.“Greg? How long has it been now? It’s good to see you again, how long has it been? When did you get into town?” Said Jack, “Are you here on business, or are you here for pleasure?”“Both. It’s always a pleasure coming here, from what I’ve been hearing. Looks like you and George have had a lot of success since we left. Looks like a lot of things have happened in the last four years.” Said Greg.“Well, we did have to make some extensions, and extra rooms, a bigger kitchen, and we’ve been really busy.” Said Jack, “What brings you guys here?”“We’ve come to see Elronda, is he around?” Said Paul.“I’m not sure, I've been busy in the kitchens, I’ll soon find out though.” He said, motioning one of the staff over, when he got to the bar, he asked him if he'd seen Elronda that morning, he hadn't. Jack told Paul no one had seen him, he hadn’t come down for breakfast. He started looking a little worried, and was about to go and find the spare keys to go into his room when he spotted him coming down the stairs, rubbing his head. He approached the other end of the bar, and asked the man that was serving that end if he could have a strong, hot drink, then he stumbled over to the nearest table. Elronda felt as though he’d been drinking most of the night and had got up with a hangover. As Jack had spotted him, he told the four men that he’d just sat at a table near by, Greg looked round and saw him sitting at a table not far away, and thanked him. The four men walked over to the table.“Are these seats taken?” Said Greg, putting his hand on Elronda’s shoulder making him jump.“No, help yourselves.” Said Elronda, not looking up at who was talking to him.“Then you don’t mind four friends or strangers joining you? You look a bit rough, have to much ale last night did you?” Said Greg, trying to get him to look up at him.“Strangers become friends.” Said Elronda, lifting his head slightly and looked at the man that sat down next to him.“Greg! Am I pleased to see you. Paul nice to see you too, Phillip, Charlie, nice to see you again. How’s things been? I haven’t seen you for months.” Said Elronda when he realised who they were, “I don’t know what’s happened to make me feel so rough I only had one ale last night.”“You look as though you've been through hell and back, was your room comfortable enough? I’m sure George or Jack can do something about it if it’s not. We’ve been travelling around to some of the area's we went to four years ago. They’ve had some weird things going on. But they seemed to calm down after we got there. Apparently, ghosts had been walking about, and disturbing everyone’s sleep.” Said Greg.“I spoke to one of them, they’d been sent out of another county, and were told to come in this direction, to Dithering Dell, the Heights, and several other places. Including some of the smaller villages. They never told us who sent them out.” Said Charlie.“I think they had the same problem here, but Jack got rid of them.” Said Elronda, “Least, I think they did.” Jack managed to get a few minutes away from the bar when some more of the staff came in which meant that he could spend some time with Elronda, Greg, Paul, Charlie and Phillip. He was told by four of the men that several other places had the same problem with ghosts but they seemed to move on after they got there, Jack told them they had the same problem till he got rid of them.“I’m just waiting for word from Alfedo and his men. Emberdean has sent them to Generis to see if they can find some information from there about a small family. There may be a connection between them and what's happening now.” Said Jack.“Are you sure you got rid of all of them?” Said Elronda, “I had a really rough night last night.”

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“I did go around with my staff, Paltrow and Staigo were with me. The only thing I didn’t do was go into any of the rooms. Which room are you in?” Said Jack.“Number twenty three. It’s comfortable, don’t get me wrong, I just had fitful nights sleep.” Said Elronda, Jack realised then that it was the room where the two people were found dead.“Right, sorry about that, I’ll get another room prepared for you. I’ll go check to see if we have any, spare. Will you four want rooms?” said Jack.“If you have any that would be great.” Said Phillip.“Do you want four single rooms or two double rooms with single beds?” Said Jack.“Think we’ll have two double rooms with the single beds, if you have them.” Said Greg.“I’ll see if I have them, in the mean time, I’ll get another room sorted for you too, while I’m there, Elronda. Please accept my apologies about the room.” Said Jack, he went behind the bar and looked at the board where the keys were and double-checked every room to make sure he’d go three empty rooms for the five men. He hadn’t, he only had one, just then one of the bar staff came over and told him that some people wanted to pay their bills and sign out. He picked up the book and took it over to the counter.“Good morning, Mr and Mrs. Rochard, are you on your way home now, or are you going to visit the rest of your family?” Said Jack.“We’ve decided to go home. My wife has decided she’s missing her garden and her friends at home.” Said Mr. Rochard, “It’s been wonderful staying here, I almost forgot that we were staying at the best Inn, I thought we were still at home or staying with friends.” Taking the pen and signing the book, and giving Jack some money for his bill.“Would you make sure that’s the correct amount, please Jack.” Said Mr. Rochard, in another book under the counter that Jack picked up he added up the price of every item they had, then counted the money that came to the same amount."That's absolutely great, Mr. Rochard, thank you very much for staying with us and call again soon." Said Jack. Mrs. Rochard said they would try to, they both left the Inn really happy. Two men also wanted to sign out and pay their bill. Jack added up what they had, and they paid up saying they would recommend the Inn to their friend’s one they got home, and thanked Jack for running such a great place.“Thank you, Mr. Taylor. My brother has more of a hand in it than I do, and with such good staff too, that helps.” Said Jack.“Of course, of course! I was forgetting the staff. Would you please thank them for me?” Said Mr. Taylor, Jack said he would, “I think I see some that I’ve dealt with while I’ve been here, I’ll talk to them on the way out. Thanks again Jack, bye.” He said as the two men started walking through the Inn. Jack called the four men over, when they got to the bar, he told them he’d got two rooms empty now, if they didn't mind waiting.“Let’s have four of your great meals while we wait, Jack.” Said Phillip, “I hope they’re as good as the last time we were here.”“Possibly, would you like to sign the book for me please? I’ll get you a menu.” Said Jack, “You can judge for yourself when you've eaten.” The four men signed the book, chose from the menu the meals they wanted, and went back to sit with Elronda. Before Jack could give the order to one of the staff, some more people came in looking for rooms for a few days. Jack looked through his books to see if he had any left, he hadn’t.“I’m so sorry, I’m afraid I’ve just let the last two to some men.” Said Jack. Disappointed, they thanked him and left, he called one of the waiters over and gave him the order for the meals for the four men, and carried on serving behind the bar for a while longer. By an hour after mid-day, he began to realise that he hadn’t seen Paltrow and Staigo around the bar. One of the staff came over to take over from Jack, he walked around the bar asking the staff if they’d seen his two friends, Paltrow and

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Staigo, no one had. Luckily, one of the town’s people that came in for a drink had, he told him he’d seen them leave earlier but didn’t see where they went. Jack thanked him and decided to go home for his lunch. After having a small lunch, he walked around the town for a while before going back to the Travellers Arms to do some more work for George. By the time he got there, George was serving behind the bar.“George, has Paltrow and Staigo come back yet? I haven't seen them at all today.” Said Jack.“From what they told me this morning, they were going some where to check some thing out. I think they said they were going some where near either Dithering Dell or The Heights and they’d be back later." Said George.“Why on earth would they go there on their own for?” Said Jack, George shrugged his shoulders, “Have the rooms been sorted out for Greg, Phillip Charlie and Paul yet? Elronda needs to be moved to another room too, I asked the staff to sort out room number 20 for him, it is empty. Elronda told me he didn’t sleep very well in number 24 last night.”“Oh, yes, I was told, I think every things being sorted out now. They can go and get settled in the rooms soon.” Said George, by the time Jack had gone round collecting more empty glasses, and then all the plates.It was almost time for the chefs to start preparing for the evening, and another onslaught of customers, families, parties, and couples wanting a quiet corner. Jack decided he’d have a meal at the Inn before going home.The five men were soon called to the bar to get the keys to the rooms and were asked to sign in the book, they all gave George some money for the rooms, then headed up stairs to them to get cleaned up.“These rooms are impressive.” Said Greg as he walked into the room he was sharing with Paul.“Impressive is an understatement.” Said Paul, “I’d say they are magnificent, fit for Royalty.” He walked around the room checking every thing out, he just couldn’t believe how grand the room was compared to the rooms at the Inn before.“Alberto and his men certainly knew their jobs, they’ve improved the whole place.” Said Greg, going around the room too, “Hey, even our own bathroom.” He said in surprise. “Bathroom! In here? You're joking of course.” Said Paul.“Take a look for yourself.” Said Greg, “No wonder this place is popular. Lets get sorted then we'll take a walk round the town.” “Think I'll have a rest here, I'm exhausted, I'll catch up to you later.” Said Paul. Both the men took it in turns to use the bathroom. While Paul got settled on the bed, Greg went back down stairs and left the Inn and walked around the town for a while. He found there were quite a few people that remembered him from the last time he was there. People were stopping him quite frequently, he began to wish that he never left the Inn. The rest of the tow looked almost the same to him, till he got to the Town Square when he noticed the memorial. He checked it out, then carried on round the town talking to everyone that stopped him. After about an hour of this he decided to go back to the Inn to get away from it. The Inn was starting to fill up with the town's people that had come in for a drink or a meal, or both. Even then he found that some of them came over to talk to him. It was as if they were treating him like a hero.Phillip and Charlie had made use of the bathroom too, they couldn't get over how great the place looked, even though they all had a hand in helping to put the place back together again. When they'd finished in the room, they went back down to the bar to get an ale, they saw Greg being surrounded by people talking to him, and went over to rescue him. The only trouble was, he too was swamped by the same people, asking questions and talking to them. George came into the bar from his living quarters and saw what was going on, he grabbed the bell that was on the bar and started ringing it, making everyone jump.

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“Right, every one. Unless you want me to call last orders now, you better let these gentlemen have some room and a breather.” Said George, putting the bell back on the bar. The people soon started going back to their seats and got on with what they were doing. George went over to make sure they were all right, then had one of his staff bring three ales over to a table for them.“Now, are you sure you're all right? I could get every one to leave here and close up for the night, early.” Said George. “We'll be all right now, George.” Said Greg, “It's nice to be recognised, but it can get out of hand.”“As long as you're sure. I'll get Donno to serve you the rest of the night. And I'll get a couple of my friends to sit near you to make sure that the riffraff don't bother you.” Said George.“You don't have to do that George, honestly.” Said Phillip.“My customers are allowed to sit, eat and drink here without being bothered or badgered about anything, that includes 'visiting hero's'.” He said with a grin.

For the rest of the evening every one came and went about their business. Some people didn't know the men had arrived till they got to the Inn, and tried to approach them. They were promptly turned away by one of George's friends. After a couple of hours, Elronda and Phillip came down and joined them, Elronda had managed to get some rest and looked better than he did earlier. They joined the other three men and ordered more ale. Elronda noticed that no one was coming over to talk to them and asked the others why. He was told by Greg that a lot of the customers surrounded them and barraged them with talk and questions, and George almost threatened to kick them out, and he'd put two men nearby to make sure no one bothered them. Not long after Elronda and Phillip came down, Jack came back to the Inn and tried to join them. The men that George had put there wouldn't let him, till he had a word with George, he signalled to them that it was all right for his brother to sit with them, they let him pass.“Got yourselves some of George's body guards now, I see.” Said Jack when he was finally able to join them.“Yes, we sort of got stuck in the middle of the room and couldn't move for people.” Said Phillip, “George almost called for time, early.”“Well, George won't stand for any nonsense. Has Paltrow and Staigo come back yet?” Said Jack.“Haven't seen them at all.” Said Elronda, “I doubt they'll be back tonight.”“They should be, they've only gone to Dithering Dell or the Heights. I would have liked to have gone with them.” Said Jack.“They may have gone on some errand or something.” Said Charlie.“It's getting dark out, I hope they'll be all right coming back. I hope none of those ghosts are around.” Said Jack.“Ghost? Why are ghosts walking around?” Said Paul.“I've no idea, we had them here for a while. They’d been sent here from some where else.” Said Jack, and spent the next hour telling them about what the ghost had told them, and going round the Inn with the staff to be rid of them.“Shall we leave now, or is it safe for us to stay here?” Said Charlie, looking decidedly worried.“Don't worry, your safe here now, I don't think they'll come back, or the bodies.” Said Jack.“Oh, my God! What bodies?” Said Greg.“Two people died in one of the rooms, George sent for the doctor, and by the time he got here, they'd gone. So, he went home, George went to his living quarters and they turned up in his kitchen.” Said Jack.“Please tell me that's not true!” Said Phillip.“Yes, two dead bodies, you’re joking. Right.” Said Charlie, almost panicking.

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“I'm afraid it's true. But they never disappeared again though, as far as I know.” Said Jack.“Right, I'm getting out of here, and fast.” Said Charlie, he hated ghosts, he felt spooked by the shadows when they were up against them some time back. Jack put his hand on his arm.“Don't worry, there won't be any more. I'm working on it so they won't come back.” Said Jack. Paul saw two hooded figures come through the door of the Inn.“I think your friends are back.” He said, nodding towards the door, Jack looked around as the two men walked over to the bar and asked George for some ale as they took their hoods off. Paltrow and Staigo headed for the same table where the others were and were stopped by the two men, George signalled to them that it was all right for them to sit with the others, and they let them through.“How come you've got two burly men stopping us from coming here?” Said Staigo.“We couldn't get away from the rest of the customers.” Said Elronda, “George put them there to stop any one coming over. How did you get on at Dithering Dell?”“Ok. There was still a few ghosts there, they told us they told us they wasn't bothering anyone, most of the people living there gave us a bit of information to go on about Generis and Melthon. There were two or three that had relatives that had moved to Dithering Dell at some point. They had heard about a family that had been wondering around the area. They didn't seem to fit in anywhere.” Said Paltrow. “Again with the ghosts.” Said Charlie, “Is that all there is to talk about round here? I'm going to have bad dreams tonight, I know it.” His hand started shaking.“No you won't.” Said Jack, “Have you got any thing with you to help him Staigo, or you Paltrow?” “I believe so, it's upstairs. I'll sort something out when we go up, if that's all right Charlie?” Said Staigo, “It's great to see you men again, when did you get here?” “Thanks for your help. We got here this morning, I must say this place is great, isn't it?” Said Charlie, “Ghosts, dead bodies disappearing…” “Don't worry, it's not going to happen again.” Said Staigo. Just then, one of the waiters brought some food over for Paltrow and Staigo. They others realised they hadn't eaten and asked for the same as the other two men.

“George has already ordered meals for you, some one will be bringing them shortly.” Said the waiter. Shortly after he left them, Donno and Albert brought some meals round for the others, followed by more ale’s all round. Soon the bar started becoming empty as the customers started leaving for home, or going to their rooms, and the seven men were the only ones left in the bar. Jack asked George if he needed help behind the bar, or glasses collected. He told him to carry on where he was, everything was taken care of, and he only needed to lock up.“Sounds like we need to get some sleep, I’m getting tired anyway.” Said Charlie.“Good idea.” Said Greg. They all got up and headed upstairs to their rooms, Paltrow reminded Charlie he’d be over in a few minutes with something to help him sleep, if he still needed it.“Oh, yes, I still do. Shall I come over to your room first?” Said Charlie, Paltrow said he could if he wished, but it was a fast acting drink. After having the drink that Paltrow made him, he certainly had a good nights sleep.

The following morning, most of the men got up early, and was surprised to find Jack still at the Inn, not realising that he’d stayed the night in his brother’s quarters. Jack had the day off, so he could do pretty much what he wanted. He’d decided to go home to sort out the information that he’d got, when several people walked into the Inn that looked like they were going to cause trouble as they looked really rough and untidy.“Where’s Jack Scrummpy? I need a word with him, and his brother. Bring them to me now!” Said one of the men in a hoarse voice. Elronda, Greg, Phillip and Paul were in

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the bar, standing near Jack and stood in front of him, protecting him, as they didn’t recognise the men. Some of the staff were in the bar and tried to make sure that they couldn’t see George, four burly men were also in the bar that were around to keep the peace when things got rough approached the men that just walked in.“What business do you have with Jack Scrummpy and his brother George? They’re not here to meet the demands from the likes of you. Now, be on your way before we throw you out.” Said one of the men stepping forward. They other men stepped forward, and with a swing of his arm the burly man was sent flying across the room, landing in a heap by the bar. The other three rushed him with the intent of taking him down, all three ended up across the other side of the bar near the first man that went down. Elronda, Greg, Phillip and Paul drew their swords and stepped forward.“Now, gentlemen, there’s no need to be like that. State your business or be on your way.” Said Greg.“Jack and George Scrummpy. I’m here to do business with them only.” Said the man again.“And you are?” Said Greg.“None of your business, Sir. Now, where are they? I want them in front of me now.” Jack and George tried to get around the men that were protecting them, while they tried to hold them back, but they still managed to get in front of them.“We’re the men you’re looking for, now, like you’ve been told, take your trouble elsewhere.” Said George, “We don’t want troublemakers in here.” The man that was insistent on wanting Jack and George stepped forwards.“At last, sense! My name’s Franco Knights, I’ve been sent by Alfedo ahead of him to tell you he’ll be here in a few days, and will want some rooms for his men. He has important information regarding Generis, there’s more trouble on its way here because of some family that used to live there. The family’s name was Rachire, their only child Alrick, may be behind some sort of Black magic. It could be dangerous.” He told them, “My apologies for taking out your men, I will make it up to them, and yourself.” The four men started to come round, wondering what on earth hit them. They got to their feet quickly and went to rush them when George stopped them.“It’s alright, men, they’re here on business.” Said George, “Get yourselves an ale, and if you need to, go and see the doctor.” They all said they’d be all right, and just stood at the bar and were served ale, all four men went to the other end of the bar away from them.

“Could we have an ale and what ever you have on your menu please, Mr. Scrummpy? I’ve heard your good around here for both.” Said Franco.“Good, is that all? Everyone else says excellent, not good.” Said George feeling insulted.“Come on George, he obviously don’t know when to stop with his run away mouth.” Said Jack quietly so that the man couldn’t hear what he was saying, “Get them some ale’s, I’ll get one of the waiters to get their orders for food.” Both Jack and George walked off, while the newcomers sat at a table near the door. It wasn’t long before 2 of the waiters brought some food out for the men, then backed off quickly to the kitchen, just in case they didn’t like what they’d brought through to them. Word had gone round the town about the men at the Inn, along with orders not to go there, just in case the men picked on the weaker people that normally go. The people that were already in their rooms, were just about to come down, when they saw what was happening, decided to stay up in their rooms till they left.

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Chapter Five.

Since the men arrived at the Inn, business was rather slow. George was worried, he thought he might loose his good customers because of what happened. Some of the staff arrived and went through to get started, one of them motioned George to come over. Elronda and the others decided to sit in the opposite corner away from them.“Any idea how long these men are going to be here?” He said with a worried look on his face.“I haven’t a clue, they didn’t say. Is there a problem?” Said George.“Possibly, I’ve heard talk on the streets that some roughian's were in here, and word has gone round not to come here till they’ve left.” Said the man.“We haven’t any rooms for any more people any way. They said that Alfedo and his men would be arriving in a few days, too. He reckons he’ll be wanting some rooms, I don’t just kick people out for others, no matter who they are. Thanks for telling me.” Said George. He went back into the bar and behind the counter and made himself busy, Franco came over to the bar and asked for more ale for himself and his men.“My men and I are in agreement, your meals are excellent, and so are your ale’s, the only other thing we would like is to stay the night, have you any rooms?” he said, George looked at him in disbelief.“I’m afraid not, we’re fully booked until the end of the week.” Said George.“You haven’t even checked your books.” Said Franco.“Are you calling me a liar?” Said George, standing up straight, “One thing I don’t do is lie, another is not taking the likes of you sitting down. I’m asking you nicely, now, if you need rooms, go to the other Inn, as I haven’t any rooms left here.” Said George,

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he had his hand on his sword that he kept just under the counter, ready for any trouble. “Ok, ok, we’ll try the other place, what’s it called? We’ll find it, some how.” Said Franco, “But it had better be as good as this Inn.” He said walking away from the bar, he stopped by the table his men were sitting at, as George told him it was called The Tavern.“By the way, forget about those ale’s, we’re going now.” Said Franco, he turned to his men and told them to leave, they all stood up, they picked up their things and left. George and Jack breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind the last man. So did Elronda and the few that were in the bar. Soon, word got around that the men had left the Travellers Arms and people started to arrive, the place was soon a hive of activity again, much to George’s relief.

The staff was soon rushed off their feet, they were that busy with customers trying to make up for lost time. Within an hour the Inn was almost full, it was then that Anthony came back to the Inn. He rushed over to the bar bumping into several people as it was so crowded.“Where’s your brother and his two friends, quickly.” He said, breathlessly.“Is something wrong? You’re as white as a sheet.” Said George.“I wouldn’t be here asking for your brother, there’s something wrong at Dithering Dell. My house has disappeared, and my friend’s houses have disappeared. When we went round to the Inn to see if they had any rooms, that disappeared right before our eyes.” Said Anthony. The whole Inn went deathly quiet, as every one turned around, listening to what Anthony was saying.“Homes don’t just disappear, Anthony, what on earth are you talking about?” Said George.“Buildings are disappearing, please, please believe me.” Said Anthony, “Where’s your brother and his friends? I must have their help.” He pleaded. Jack, Paltrow, Staigo and the others heard him asking for them, and started over to wards the bar as George pointed to where they were. Anthony met them in the middle of the room.“What’s that you were saying about your town?” Said Jack.“It’s a little hard to tell, really. Some of the buildings are disappearing, most of them have gone, with people still inside of them.” Said Anthony, “One minute they’re there, the next, poof! They’re gone. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole place is gone by the time I get back. Please, you must come, you were the only people I could think of to come to for help.”“I’ve never heard of this happening before. What about you two, Paltrow and Staigo? Have you come across the likes of this before?” Said Jack turning to the two men, they both shook their heads.“Never, this is the first I’ve heard.” Said Staigo, “We were at Dithering Dell yesterday, and everything was alright.”“When did this start happening?” Said Paltrow.“Yesterday afternoon.” Said Anthony.“What part of Dithering Dell do you live at?” Said Staigo.“South East part, the nice part.” Said Anthony.“We were at the North east, and only covered most of it, when we decided to come back. Nothing was going on then, every thing was fine.” Said Paltrow.“What do you want us to do? I’m not even sure we can help.” Said Jack, “I’ve never heard of any thing like this happening before.”“I think we better get in touch with Emberdean.” Said Staigo to Paltrow, quietly.“What for? I’m not sure even he’s heard of things like this happening either, you know.” Said Paltrow.“It’s not so much as finding out what he knows, it’s more, well… Let’s just say I’ve got a feeling that something’s wrong. Anthony, we’ll be back in a few minutes.” Said Staigo, “Come on, Paltrow, quickly.” Both men ran up stairs to their room and

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Paltrow chanted over the mirror, at first he couldn’t get through, when he finally did, he couldn’t see Emberdean very clearly at all.“Staigo, is that you? I can’t see you properly, what’s going on?” Said Emberdean.“No this is Paltrow, it’s the same here, there seems to be some sort of interference. There’s a man that’s come back to the Travellers Arms called Anthony saying that parts of his village has started disappearing, whole buildings are just going right before his eyes.” Said Paltrow,“Well, that’s new, I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before. It’s worth looking into so I suggest you go too, hold on a minute.” Emberdean turned away from the mirror for a moment, then came back, “Apparently it has happened before, it’s a bit like when some small item disappears then turns up when you least expect it too, only on a larger scale. This has happened before.” Said Emberdean.“Was that before or after Davenour and Croyoden were exiled?” Said Paltrow.“Three times before and once after, from what I’ve been told by some one here.” Said Emberdean.“Do they know who was behind it? We need to know before we get involved, and if we need Elronda or Christo’s help.” Said Staigo.“No we don’t.” Said Emberdean, “But it could have something to do with that family Alfedo has gone to find information about. When it’s happened before, this family goes into hiding for a while. Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll contact Christo and get him to meet you at Dithering Dell with his men.” Said Emberdean.“Thanks Emberdean, that’s a great help. We’ll contact you later if we need to, bye.” Said Paltrow waving his hand over the mirror.“Looks like we’ve got our selves some investigating to do ourselves, we’d better get some of our things together and go to Dithering Dell, and have Jack come along too, with the staff.” Said Paltrow.“We better make sure that George can spare him first. Don’t forget, they’ve been really busy of late.” Said Staigo. Both men got a bag together with their potions and powders then went back down stairs. Jack and George were still in the bar talking to Anthony, who was getting really impatient at having to wait so long, George was starting to get angry and was shouting at him.“What’s going on here? Anthony, we know what the problem is, we’re ready to go, just calm down. George, you’re not helping by shouting at him, can we have Jack for a while? We may need him.” Said Paltrow, as they walked over to them, Paltrow tried to get George to move away from Anthony so he could talk to him. Staigo got Anthony to move nearer the door, away from George, and tried to calm him down.“Look, Anthony, we’ve got an idea of what’s going on, and we’re prepared to go with you. What I want you to do is calm down, getting impatient isn’t going to help, I’ve still got to sort something out with George and Paltrow, now sit down over here and be quiet for a while, can you?” Said Staigo.“We need to go, we need to go now, everything will be gone by the time we get there. We can’t waste any more time…” Said Anthony, Staigo put his hand up, then a finger to his lips.“Anthony, I know. Stay here, be quiet and let me get things organised, then we will be on our way.” Said Staigo.“But, but…” Said Anthony.“Ssshhh.” Said Staigo, putting a finger to his mouth again. Anthony decided to be silent this time, Staigo walked over to Jack and started talking to him while he waited for Paltrow. “Look, George, I know that guy can be annoying, but shouting and getting angry isn’t going to solve any thing, now can you spare Jack for a while? We’ll be needing him.” Said Paltrow.“How on earth can Jack help sort this out? Disappearing buildings isn’t in his list of thing he can do, he’s never come across any thing like this before, neither have I.” Said George.

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“If he can help solve this, then he will know what to do, won’t he? Besides, we need him and the staff, which will help. Now can you spare Jack for a while or not?” Said Paltrow, George sighed, he knew if he didn’t let Jack go with them, the same thing may start happening there, eventually, and they wouldn’t know what to do if Jack didn’t join them. “Alright, he can go with you. Do you need any extra help from here? I can always get the men together.” Said George.“Don’t worry, Emberdean is going to contact Christo, if anything starts off here, you will be here to deal with it. I know you’re resourceful when you need to be.” Said Paltrow, “I know that you’ve got things here you can use, besides which, your Inn will keep you busy, won’t it?” “Yeah, too busy since we reopened. I’ll just put the word out to the men that they have to be on the look out for anything unusual, and go from there. Go and tell Jack he can go with you.” Said George.“Thanks, George, you won’t regret this.” Said Paltrow, smiling.“I better not.” Said George as Paltrow walked over to Staigo and Jack.“Jack, do you want to go with us?” Said Paltrow.“You bet I do. I’ll have to make sure it’s ok with George first, get some time off.” Said Jack.“I’ve already asked him, you can go. You’ll have to go and get some things from your home first, specially the staff. It may help in some way.” Said Paltrow.“Come on then, what we waiting for?” Said Jack, he left the Inn and hurried over to his home and got a few things together and made sure he got the staff. While Paltrow and Staigo went up to their room and put some bottles of potions of all descriptions into their bags and started out the door of the Inn, almost forgetting about Anthony. He ran out of the Inn after them.“What’s going on? What’s taking so long?” Said Anthony, the two men stopped and turned round.“Sorry, Anthony, we’re just getting things together, where’s your horse?” Said Paltrow.”“Just here.” He said, going to his horse.“Mount up, we’ve got to get ours from the livery stable then get Jack.” Said Paltrow, just then Jack ran down the street to meet them.“Right, is everyone ready? Let’s get to Dithering Dell before this disappearing act spreads.” Said Jack, as he started heading for the stable across the street. “Wha… I didn’t see you leave the Inn.” Said Anthony.

A few hours later, all four men arrived at Dithering Dell, and rode through to where Anthony lived, when they got there every looked all right. The Staff that Jack brought with him had started glowing fiercely. As they rode through the village that Anthony lived in, the crystal either changed colour or glowed fiercely, Anthony noticed what the staff was doing and started feeling uneasy.

“What’s wrong with your staff, Jack?” He said.“Nothing out of the ordinary, why?” Said Jack, looking at the crystal as it changed again, “It’s just telling me what I was expecting.” “Oh, no! We’re all doomed! We’re doomed!” Said Anthony panicking, he was about to ride off when several of the ghosts that were wondering about the streets started to materialise. Anthony saw them then fainted, falling off his horse. Paltrow, Jack and Staigo got down off their horses, Jack carried on forward, while Paltrow and Staigo made sure Anthony was all right. It wasn’t long before he came round, and they helped him up, when he saw the ghosts in front of them he was about to pass out again, the two men held on to him and walked him over to a nearby side street.“Where’s your home or the Inn?” Said Paltrow, Anthony started mumbling and lifting his arms up and started pointing in different directions.

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“I can’t understand what you’re saying, where’s your home or the Inn? Pull yourself together, man.” Said Paltrow shaking him.“Round the corner from here. But I don’t understand, half of this lot had gone when I left.” Said Anthony, both Paltrow and Staigo helped Anthony to his home.“Neither do I, Anthony. Neither do I.” Said Paltrow. They came out the other end of the side street and Anthony pointed to his home.“That’s my home, what’s it doing there? That had disappeared a few days ago.” Said Anthony, he started shaking and said he didn’t want to go inside.“Why not? It is your home.” Said Paltrow as he started to walk across the street. “It might disappear while I’m in it.” Said Anthony, staring at it.“I doubt that very much, come on.” Said Paltrow. The three of them started walking across the road to his home, just as they got within a few feet from his home, it vanished.“Oh, no, not again!” Said Anthony, “What on earth is going on around here?” He started backing off, he turned around just as two more houses the other side of the street disappeared.“Now, do you see what’s going on?” Said Anthony.“We do, and we believed you before. Let’s get back to Jack and find out what’s happening with those ghosts.” Said Staigo, Anthony didn’t really want to go, but followed behind any way. They saw Jack still talking to them he called them over.“These ghosts’s have been telling me that these buildings have been disappearing because of them. These ghosts came from Melthon, the people that sent them here cursed them to the effect that - no matter where they go – where ever they are, they will make all around them disappear.” Jack told them.“So, why haven’t the people disappeared? That doesn’t make sense at all.” Said Paltrow.“They should be disappearing too.” Said one of the ghosts, “I don’t understand this curse at all. We shouldn’t be affecting this place like this.” “Who put the curse on you? What sort of curse does this to a place any way?” Said Staigo.“It shouldn’t be happening at all.” Said the ghost, “It was a family that wondered about Melthon and Generis that gave us the curse. They cursed a living family member of each of our families that affected the living and the dead, what was said I don’t know. This is what’s happening, even though it shouldn’t be.” “So why didn’t you avoid this place, if you know it’s you who’s doing this?” Said Paltrow.“Easier said than done! Every place we avoided, on purpose, we ended up going through. It pulled us through some how, as if there was something in each place pulling us there. We couldn’t leave until there was nothing much left of the buildings, or most of the people went mad. We’re stuck here, we can’t leave even though we want to.” Said the ghost, “You’re going to have to get rid of us. That way, these people can get back to their normal lives.”“Are there any more of you here?” Said Jack.“There’s probably a few more wondering around, they might be in the houses, that’s why some of them keep disappearing. Now, please, help us, I’m getting tired of wondering the land endlessly.” Said the ghost. Jack raised his staff and was about to say a chant when the sky darkened, clouds gathered quickly and were so dark, it was almost as if night fall had come early. Jack lowered the staff, and the clouds started clearing. He raised the staff again and it started getting dark again.“Is this part of the curse upon you?” Said Jack lowering his staff.“I don’t know, it’s possible.” Said the ghost, as the clouds started dispersing, “I don’t know what was said to our family.” Jack raised his staff again and as he was about to say the chant again, the sky darkened as the clouds gathered over Dithering Dell again. Jack, Paltrow and Staigo weren’t too sure what to do. It did seem as though they wouldn’t be able to bid rid of the ghosts with the staff, and would have to figure

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out another way of doing it. Paltrow, Staigo and Jack spent some time in the street looking around. Anthony wondered up and down, watching for his house to come back. Jack decided to walk around the town so that he could see what the town was like, as he wondered around, the crystal in his staff kept changing colour. Paltrow and Staigo separated and walked around in different directions, things didn’t seem right at all to Jack. Ghost’s stuck in another town, clouds appearing when he tried to get rid of them, whole buildings disappearing and reappearing. There had to be more than a curse on the ghosts, and houses don’t just come and go at will while they’re there. He hadn’t any thing to go on at home, and was about to try to find the town’s library when Anthony called him.“Jack, where are you going? Are you going to get rid of these ghosts and do something about these buildings? We’re getting fed up with the whole thing.” Said Anthony.“I know, I thought it would be a simple case of coming here and doing that, it seems there’s more to it than that. Have you a library? I need to find a few things out about this town, then I might be able to help.” Said Jack. “It looks like I’ve got to do some checking up on the area, and try and find out what happened here. Is there any more that you can tell me?” he said, looking at one of the ghostly figures. “We’ve been around for so long like this, I’m not sure of anything any more.” Said the ghostly figure, he looked really worn out and sad then faded out to nothing. Jack turned and looked at Anthony, not liking what the ghost had said made it seem as though they would never get rid of them. Jack motioned to Anthony to lead the way to the library. “Follow me, it’s just down the next street, so long as that hasn’t gone too.” Said Anthony. The two men went into the building, Anthony introduced Jack to the man that ran the library.“Good afternoon, Mr. Scrummpy. How are you enjoying our town?” Said the librarian.“It seems to keep lacking a few buildings now and again, and has some unwanted visitors, other than that, I’d say your town is great.” Said Jack. “I agree, it is rather a nuisance isn’t it? How may I help you?” Said the librarian.“I need to see building plans of the whole city, a list of all the people that were born here, people that moved here as far back as you can go, and the lay out for the town for as far back as you can, for a start.” Said Jack, the man was surprised, he never had that type of request before.“What on earth for?” He said.“Well I believe there’s some sort of force keeping the ghosts around the town, when I tried to disperse them, clouds started appearing. I need to find out if there’s any thing with the buildings, or underground.” Said Jack.“I’m sure I can accommodate you, Mr Scrummpy. Follow me, I should have something in another section of the library for you to look at.” Anthony and Jack followed the librarian through the library, passing shelf upon shelf loaded with books, half way through the place, the man walked down another isle, till they came to the end. Where they stopped, the man took out a bunch of keys out of his pocket, and headed for the wall, then placed what looked like a key by it, a door opened two feet away from them.“Follow me, gentlemen, if you please. Most of the town’s records are kept through here.” Said the librarian. Going through the doorway they entered a room, which looked even bigger than the library itself, Jack paused for a moment, wondering what on earth he’d let him self in for.

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Chapter Six.

The librarian found as many records as he could and put them on a nearby table, leaving Jack to look through all the paperwork he’d put on there. Anthony sat nearby looking through a box that was put on the table to one side. There was quite a lot too get through, and he wasn’t sure if Anthony would be of any help, he asked him if he could go and find his two friends, Paltrow and Staigo, as they hadn’t followed him into the library. Anthony left the room and made his way to the front of the building, trying to retrace his steps from the way he came in. As he opened the door and stepped outside, every thing looked different. Every thing looked almost the same as before, except it seemed to shimmer slightly, and moved slower than it did before he entered the library. Anthony approached one of the people on the street to ask him some thing and he never noticed him, Anthony tried someone else, and they walked right through him. He started feeling scared, and looked around again, properly this time and realised that, while he and Jack had been in the building, it had disappeared. He turned around and ran back to the library and to the room where he’d left Jack, he was still there, looking through the papers.“Jack! Jack thank God your still here!” he said, when he finally got to where Jack was. “Of course I’m still here, where would I be? How come your back so quick, couldn’t you find Paltrow and Staigo?” Said Jack.“That’s just it, I don’t think this building is visible from the outside.” Said Anthony.“What are you going on about, Anthony, of course it is, your imagination has run away with you this time!” said Jack.“It’s not my imagination, Jack. When I went outside every thing looked different, so did the people. Come and have a look if you don’t believe me.” Said Anthony.“There’s all this paper work to get through, which I wont be able to if I’m following you outside and back, now, please, go and find Paltrow and Staigo, like I asked you to before, please.” Said Jack, as he carried on going through the paper work in front of him. Anthony headed for the door, then walked through the main library again. As he approached the main doors, they opened and Paltrow and Staigo walked in.“Paltrow, Staigo! Thank God! Has this building returned to normal now?” Said Anthony, the two men looked at each other and then Anthony.“What do you mean, ‘returned to normal’? Looked alright when we came in.” Said Paltrow. “I came out about five minutes ago and everything looked strange, and I couldn’t get anyone to hear me.” Said Anthony.“Are you sure?” Said Staigo.“Of course I’m sure, I’m not crazy.” Said Anthony, he headed for the main doors and every thing looked normal again when he looked outside.“Didn’t any one out there say that this building had gone?” Said Anthony, Paltrow and Staigo told him they hadn’t heard any thing like that.“Where’s Jack? Has he found anything yet?” Said Staigo.“Not as far as I know, I’ll show you where he is, maybe you can help him with what he’s got. The librarian found a lot of paperwork to do with the area.” Said Anthony, “Follow me.” He walked back through building and to the room where Jack was. When they finally got to where Jack should have been, he wasn’t there, and Anthony looked a little worried. Just then, Jack came round one of the large shelves that were in the room.

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“Ah, you managed to find them then, thanks Anthony. I think I may need some extra help with this lot that’s if you don’t mind doing some paper work? There’s quite a lot as you can see.” Said Jack, “I haven’t checked that box over there, but Anthony has made a start on it.”“Any idea what we’re looking for” Said Staigo, grabbing the box.“Any thing to do with disappearing of any sort in this area, at a guess, and if there’s any reference to any thing in this area before this town was built, to do with witch craft, black magic, rituals, curses. There’s got to be some thing written somewhere of something, any thing, which went on in this area, to keep those ghosts here. When I tried to get rid of them earlier, a storm started brewing, that means that there’s some thing here that stops anyone trying anything to be rid of them.” “Ok, let’s see what we have here.” Said Paltrow, picking up some of the papers near Jack, “Have you come across any thing yourself yet?” “Not really, so far all I’ve found is some parts of this area used to be home to people that travelled a lot, but always came back for about three or four months, then left again.” Said Jack, he found the notes he found it on and passed them over to Paltrow, he looked through them with great interest, as he’d started to remember something from his past.“All this seems familiar, bits and pieces of it any way. Even in the area where Staigo and I were most of the time, living and moving around. These people used to visit there and over the years they seemed to be different.”“Different? In what way?” asked Jack.“Hard to put my finger on at the moment, it was such a long time ago.” Said Paltrow, Staigo agreed with him.“You know, this is ringing some alarm bells with me too. Yet I can’t remember why at the moment.” Said Staigo, “I’ll probably remember later, I hope.” He picked some things up off the table and started looking through. The lights came on in the library, Jack and Anthony got up and started to walk around, Jack headed for the main part of the library and looked out through the window, it was decidedly darker. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to walk around the library before going out side. Some thing glinting in the corner caught his eye; he strolled over to get a closer look. As he got closer, it seemed to blink then go out. Jack continued to walk over to see if it left any thing behind, ‘not that it would, of course,’ he thought. When he looked closer in the corner, there seemed to be a small hole in the bottom of the wall, nothing else. Deciding to leave it for the time being, he went back to the room where the others were. The room had become darker, the lights were on but not giving out the amount of light that they would normally.“Is it me or does it look a little dull in here?” said Jack.“Your right, it does. Where’s the librarian? There could be some thing wrong with the lights.” Said Anthony.“I don’t know if he’s still here or gone for lunch. Or what ever it is they do around here.” Said Paltrow, “It might be getting late any way, I think we ought to go and get something to eat and have a rest I think. All this reading is making me hungry and tired. Shall we see if we can get some rooms for the night?” “That would be a good idea, let’s go.” Said Jack. They put the papers back together and started out of the room, walking through the main part of the library, Jack spotted some thing glinting over near one of the windows.“What’s that over there?” he said, pointing. The others looked over to where he was pointing, but didn’t see any thing.“What is it Jack, what do you see?” said Paltrow.“You mean to tell me you don’t see that object glinting over by the window, near the wall?” Said Jack, as he started walking towards it. Paltrow followed him, but he still didn’t see any thing.

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“I don’t think there’s any thing there Jack. Come on lets go, I think you’ve been here for to long, you need a rest.” Said Paltrow. Jack sighed, thinking he was going mad; he never was prone to hallucinations, so why was it happening now? “Ok, better get out of here and come back tomorrow or some thing. I do need a rest, I agree with you, for once.” Said Jack as he headed for the main doorway for the building. Outside, things seemed to be the same, there was an odd chill in the air and it wasn’t as late as they thought it was. The librarian was sitting on a chair outside a shop that sold hot and cold drinks, he looked a little pale. Jack, Anthony and the others didn’t really pay much attention to him at the time, and carried on walking down the street to find the Inn or a boarding room of some sort.“Have you got an Inn here, Anthony?” said Jack.“Of course we have, it’s just round the next corner, follow me I’ll get you sorted out.” He said. They went into the next street and walked down to the Inn. As they went inside, some of the people recognised Jack, Paltrow and Staigo, and got up to welcome them straight away. They were offering to buy them drinks, meals, and get them anything they wanted. Anthony stepped in and asked them to leave them alone as they were all exhausted. Anthony approached the bar and asked for the owner of the Inn and asked if he had 2 or 3 rooms spare for Jack, Paltrow and Staigo. He had, Jack, Paltrow and Staigo managed to get to the bar and talk to the manager of the Inn.“We need some rooms for the night at least, if you’ve got any, please.” Said Paltrow.“Of course, I’ve got several rooms empty, most with double or single beds in. Would you like a room all together or separate rooms?” asked the manager.“We’ll have a room all together please, I think that will work out cheaper I think.” Said Paltrow. The manager nodded and got the register out and asked them to sign in. While he got the key for the room, one of the bar staff asked if he could get them anything to eat or drink, Staigo asked for the menu if they had one and to get them all an ale. He was passed a menu of sorts, the barman started pulling them ale’s. “Thank you, how much do I owe you for that? And the meals?” he asked, taking some coins out of his pocket. The barman looked at the owner of the Inn who shook his head, saying quietly ‘no charge’. “No charge, on the house.” Said the barman.“You must accept payment, sir. How much?” Said Staigo. The owner of the Inn turned to Staigo.“Look, sir, it’s perfectly alright, there’s no charge for the meals and the ale’s. Have them as a thank you for what you have already done for this town, and if you can help us again with what’s going on now, we’ll consider it again. The same goes for the room.” Said the manager. Jack and Paltrow over heard what was said and couldn’t believe their ears. They seemed to be treated like hero’s where ever they went and were having most of their needs met by the people. “If you’re thinking about Davenour and Croyoden, that was about four years ago now. Long past most people remembering.” Said Staigo.“When towns are saved by others much bolder than your self, and it’s for the better, those people will be thanked one way or another. Please, accept it as it is, a gift. For services to the whole country. I know already about you being honoured by Royalty, that doesn’t matter to me or any of us. We want to thank you our selves, too. Please accept what we are giving you as our way of thanking you. It might not mean much to you but it means the world to us.” The manager said. Staigo sighed, and put his coins back into his pocket not really wanting to argue, and took the menu off the barman. Looking through it and finding something he liked, he ordered it, then passed it to the others. When they’d all ordered they found a spot to sit and waited. Every one in the room was watching them, a couple of them got up and started to approach to talk to them but they were soon turned back by a couple of large men who had been told to protect them from any nuisance customers without them knowing.

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“Well, it looks like we’ll be able to eat in piece.” Said Paltrow, looking around the room, watching the burly men stopping people approaching them, and people coming and going out of the main door. “I hope so. I’m to worn out to have lengthy conversations with other people at the moment. One thing I’d like to know is though, why are we getting treated like we won some sort of war? We only took out two men that were planning on taking over the whole country.” Said Jack.“And their armies! Don’t for get them, there were loads of them, even though I think we probably took some of them out twice.” Said Staigo. “That could well be. Knowing how devious those two were.” Said Paltrow. Anthony came over and sat with them, he looked really pleased with himself.“Now what you been up too.” Said Jack.“Nothing, I just found out that my house has reappeared, I thought that it had gone for good.” Said Anthony.“That’s a relief for you then isn’t it? How long had it been gone for?” Said Jack.“It disappeared about 2 days ago originally, it did come back but only for a few minutes. But it looks like its back permanently, now. I’m going to make sure it stays here too. I’ve got some crystal from one of the shop keepers to put in my house. They are the best ones the shop keeper had. Told me they would keep every thing in the right place and protect it.” Said Anthony. Paltrow asked to look at them, Anthony got them out of his pocket and gave them to him. Paltrow was intrigued, they were so light in weight and colour. He looked at them more closely, and was sure he spotted some thing not right with one of them. He said nothing and gave them back to Anthony until he could be more sure, he’d have to try some thing with them later, he thought to himself. Not long after Anthony sat at the table with them, the staff brought the meals over to the table. Some of the other customers had to wait a while longer for their meals, but they didn’t seem to mind. A couple of hours after they had eaten they decided to go to the room that had been booked for them, Anthony told them that he would go home and would see them the following day at the library.“Would you like to take another ale up to your room with you?” One of the bar staff asked them, they said they would and waited while it was poured in to glasses, then they climbed the stairs to the room. They were so tired they just went to the beds after they had finished the ale’s.

The following morning, they woke bright and early, got dressed and went down stairs to the bar. There, it seemed that word had gone round the rest of the town and people were waiting to see them. If they couldn’t get into the Inn, some of them were waiting outside to see them come out, just to get a glimpse of them if they could. “Good morning, gentlemen. Would you like some breakfast, and a hot drink? I thought you would have liked to have breakfast in your room.” The manager said.“Thanks for the offer, but down here is fine, thank you.” Said Paltrow, “We’ll have our meal here, what have you got for breakfast?” The manager then ran through a lot of things that they did, when he got through half of his list to some thing Paltrow liked the sound of, told him to bring out three of them. “Certainly, they will be ready shortly. Thank you very much, sir.” Said the manager. He wrote what they wanted on some paper, he then gave it to one of his staff to take through to the kitchen. It wasn’t long before the breakfasts were brought through for them, as if the other meals had been put on hold while theirs were done before the others. When they finished their breakfast they went round to the library again to carry on with their research. They got there just as the library disappeared for a minute or two then fazed back in, but it didn’t seem to look quite right.“Does that library look right to you?” said Staigo, the others looked at it to them it seemed to be alright.

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“How do you mean? It looks alright to me.” Said Jack “Come on, we need to put this information together that’s in there and help these people yet again, and those ghosts that have ended up here. We’ve got to figure out a way to sort that out, too.” “I know we have, but…” Started Staigo, as Jack started walking towards the door of the library not really paying any attention to him, he knew that the right information was there, but just couldn’t piece it together. He needed more time to look through it. They entered the library, and headed for the room that they were in the night before. The paperwork they had left on the table wasn’t there. Jack left the room and started looking around for the Librarian, as he wondered around he noticed something sparkling over by the wall and approached it. As he got nearer, the staff in his hand started glowing slightly he pointed the staff at it and it sparked, shooting a bolt of lightening at it, making it explode. The others came rushing out of the room where they had been waiting for Jack to come back.“What on earth is going on, what happened?” Said Staigo.“When we were leaving yesterday, I noticed something glinting over by the wall, it was still there today. All I’ve done is point the staff at it, the staff shot a bolt of lightening at it then what ever was there exploded.” Jack said.“I told you there was something wrong with this building.” Said Staigo, “But you wouldn’t listen.” Staigo walked over to where there were some black marks on the wall made by the explosion, there was dust on the floor from some thing that had been hit.“What ever was here has now gone, I wonder what it was in the first place.”“I told you I saw some thing yesterday when we were leaving, let’s take a look out side to see if that’s made any difference to the building.” Said Jack, heading for the main doors.“Seems to look alright now.” Said Staigo looking at the front of the building, just then some of the ghosts appeared and approached them.“Oh no, now what? The ghost’s have reappeared that we’re supposed to be helping.” Said Jack. Turning round to face them and greeting them, “Is every thing alright?” “It certainly is, there was some thing that one have you has just done, it seems to have effected us some how. I can no longer go in to the library, what was it that you did?” said one of the ghosts.“I saw something in the library last night, some thing was sparkling it’s possible that it may have had some thing attached to it, and it was still there today when we went it back in. My staff seemed to glow, all I did was point it at it and it was hit by lightening. It must be part of what is keeping you here, if there are any more in this town we will have to find them and destroy them too.” Jack told him.“Sounds like that will work. I’ll get the others here that are trapped to help, if we can get into any of the other buildings, we’ll show you which ones and then you can do what you have to.” Said the ghost, breathing a sigh of relief, “Finally, it looks like we may be able to leave after all.” The ghost told the others what to do and them to wait by the places where there was something either glowing or twinkling, he walked around himself until he was able to enter one of the buildings. He found what he thought Jack was talking about and came back out to tell him. Soon, every where that had some thing in them that looked like it was keeping the ghosts there was gone. All the ghosts then approached Jack and thanked him and the others, and started to leave Dithering Dell. As they got to the outskirts of the town, something happened. It seemed strange that the strange sparkle in the homes and around the town that seem to have some sort of hold on the town ghosts, as the few that were in the lead got to the edge of the town they didn’t faze through and disappear as they should of done. As each ghost got to the edge of town they became solid, then suddenly became old, fall into a pile of bones and crumble to dust in a few seconds. A slight breeze started blowing the dust away and there was a soft sigh on the air, as one of the ghosts walked pass Jack he thanked him for letting them go. More and more of the ghosts started appearing from all over the place and started heading towards the city

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boarder, one group of them stood to one side and seemed to be waiting for some thing. Paltrow and Staigo walked over to where they thought the boarder of the city is where the dust of the ghosts was being blown away, Staigo put his hand forward and it seemed to burn, he pulled his hand back quickly yelling with pain, turned and dropped to his knees. Paltrow stepped towards him and took hold of his hand to see how bad it was, he could feel heat coming from it, as if it was on fire.“Give me some water quickly.” Shouted Paltrow as he pulled Staigo away from the city limits, Jack turned to see what was going on, to him it looked like Paltrow and Staigo were encircled in flames. One of the towns people heard the commotion and grabbed a bucket from just outside his door way ran inside and filled it with water and brought it out to where Paltrow and Staigo were. Paltrow put Staigo’s hand into the water as quickly as he could.“Jack, bring me that bag over there’s some thing in there I may be able to use on his hand.” Said Paltrow, Jack walked quickly over to the bag and took it over to Paltrow, he didn’t go to close as he could still see the flames dancing around them, and didn’t move.“Jack!” Shouted Paltrow, “For goodness sake come over here, I need my bag.” The man that brought the bucket of water over for Paltrow took the bag off Jack and took it over to him, staring back at Jack wondering what on earth was wrong with him. Paltrow went through his bag, took an item out of his bag and started covering his hand with it, then took out a cloth and wrapped it around Staigo’s hand. Jack rubbed his eyes and looked again, there was nothing surrounding Paltrow and Staigo, the flames had gone. What made him think that they were surrounded with fire in the first place he didn’t know. He walked over to the two men and started apologising profoundly. “I’m sorry Paltrow, when I’d picked the bag and started approaching you I could see flames around both of you. You weren’t burning, you just had them around you and I wasn’t sure if I would get burned until this man came over with the bag. It must have been an illusion of some sort.” Said Jack.“Ok, Jack, sounds like a good excuse. But what, exactly did you see, and why didn’t you bring the bag over?” Said Paltrow.“I’ve just told you the reason why, Paltrow. I saw flames around the two of you. They aren’t there now, it must have been some sort of illusion, that’s the only thing I can think off.” Jack tried to explain. Paltrow got up and helped Staigo to the Inn nearby, the man had a puzzled look on his face as he walked away from him, wondering if he was telling the truth.Jack looked around for a twig or some thing that he could use, on finding one he went over to where Paltrow and Staigo had been, and held the twig out in front of him and slowly walked forward. Nothing happened, he walked a few feet more and his hand started to feel hot, the twig in front of him started smoking, not wanting his hand to burn he threw the twig ahead of him and it burst into flames.“What on earth is going on here? Can’t see any thing in front of me yet, what ever goes past this point gets burned. Must try and find out what’s going on.” Said Jack, he turned and followed Paltrow to the nearby Inn. When they got inside, Paltrow continued to work on Staigo’s hand as it was badly burned and had started to blister. “What happened back there, Jack? People are prone to hesitate or freeze, but you’re not like that I know you better than you think.” Said Paltrow.“I’ve already told you what I saw, Paltrow, I think it had something to do with us being able to let those ghosts go. While you were bringing Staigo over here, I’ve picked up a stick and walked over to where Staigo got his hand burned and it burst into flames. What ever we have done has had some sort of consequence. The boarder of this town has now got something around it preventing us from leaving, I don’t know if any one coming in will have the same thing done to them or not, but it looks like we will have to work on some thing to bring it down some how, if we can find out

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who put this around in the first place. Could have been those other people, Alrick and his family. Don’t forget, there are rumours of him putting some sort of curse in this area.” Said Jack. “Are you sure about that?” Said Staigo. “I showed you the information at the Library, remember? I think some one mentioned it too.” “That means we probably won’t be able to get out of here for a while till we can raise the curse off this place, and sort the border out. After what just happened to Staigo.” Said Paltrow, working on Staigo’s hand, it started looking better but it was still a little painful when he moved it. “Let’s go to your room and prepare something, you should have some thing in your book about this sort of thing haven’t you?” said Jack, “I’m sure I saw something when you showed me it.” They left the Inn and went back round to the other Inn where they were staying just down the road, and went up to the room they were staying in, the door was ajar when they got there. The two men knew they had shut and locked the door when they had left, and drew their swords quietly before they entered. Standing either side of the door, Jack pushed the door open slowly and peered in but couldn’t see any one from where he was, Paltrow didn’t see any one the other side of the room, they walked in slowly, and moved around both sides of the room looking for any one that may be in there. The room appeared empty, they were about to put their swords away when some one came from behind the door and went to attack Staigo. He brought his sword up to block him, Paltrow swung round then ran across the room almost falling over something on the floor, and managed to land a glancing blow on the person that had got into the room, knocking him to the floor. Staigo put his foot on the mans arm and held his sword at his throat. “What are you doing in here?” Said Staigo.“None of your business.” Said the man.“It is if you’ve no right being in here, your not one of the staff. Now, what are you doing in here?” Said Staigo. The man started struggling to get his arm freed from under foot, Paltrow put his boot on the mans chest.“You’re going no where.” Said Paltrow, “Now, what were you up too and what were you looking for?”“Like I said, none of you’re business…..I’ve found what I’m looking for and your two late to do any thing about it.” Said the man grinning up at Staigo and Paltrow, “You will always be too late to do any thing.” He started choking and foam started coming out of the mans mouth as he turned blue then purple and died with a cackle coming out of his mouth.“What the heck was that?” said Jack as he approached Paltrow and Staigo, looking down at the man, he started turning into some sort of mushy blubber, and disappeared into the cracks of the floor boards. “I’ve no idea, he was probably given something to kill himself with if he was discovered. I don’t think we will know who sent him either.” Said Staigo, looking at the floor where the man had gone, there was a stain on the floor. A small piece of paper was sticking out of a crack between the floor boards, he picked it up and looked at it closely, there was some thing written on it in a language he didn’t understand.“What’s that?” said Jack.“I think it’s something that got left behind after that man turned to blubber. It’s got something written on it that I can’t read, I think it’s a different language.” Said Staigo showing it to Jack. He studied it carefully trying to compare it to different languages he had come across over the years but couldn’t think which one.“It does look familiar, I’m sure I’ve come across this before a few years ago but I can’t remember where for the life of me.” Said Jack, “It’ll come to me eventually I’m sure.” He walked over and sat on one of the beds, reading and re reading it. Paltrow

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went back down to the bar and spoke with one of the bar staff telling him what had happened in their room, and requested some one to clean it up.“Do you know who the person was that went into your room?” said the bar man.“I didn’t know him at all, I’m not sure if he even lived around here. He was after some thing, did you see any one go up to our room, or ask for access to the room we are in?” said Paltrow.“People go up and down the stairs all the time, sir, I never had any one ask me for access to your room either. I’ll have one of the maids come up and sort out the mess, this is the first time any thing like this has happened here.” Said the barman.“Ok, I’ll have a word with the manager later, see if he knows any thing. Thanks.” Paltrow left the bar and went back up to the room. Things were not right, and he couldn’t put his finger on it. Why would someone go into their room looking for something then turn to blubber and disappear through the floor. He could have been sent by some one and given something that would do that to him if he was found out. As he re-entered the room he had left Jack and Staigo the air seemed to be stagnant, a pungent smell was coming from where the man had gone, the two men seemed to have been overcome by the smell and it was starting to affect him too.

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