Chapter 21: Lectern

Daniel grinned and savoured the bar he had.

He found his thoughts drifting to wonder if Pip was as feisty in bed. He was surprised to find he was getting a massive hard-on thinking about her. He had to take a few deep breaths to try to control his reaction. He glanced at Pip and caught her looking away. He was darn sure that he knew where her eyes had been.

To his consternation that only made him harder. She was having a decidedly unusual effect on him. He normally had pretty good control over his libido, but her presence was affecting him as no other woman’s had. Even Olivia hadn’t affected him to this extent, not without at least attracting his attention first.

Pip didn’t seem to need to do anything sexual. She was just sitting beside him for crikey’s sake. She was even far enough away that someone could easily sit between them. Daniel kept his eyes off her and once he had some control, he got up.

Pip was right beside him, and she then turned and started climbing again. After another half an hour of watching her cute butt bouncing above his head as she climbed, he was ready to climb all over her. He watched as she scrambled over a ledge and then disappeared from his sight.

He followed her over and found her crouching just outside a small cave entrance that was barely a metre round. Strange symbols were painted in red and purple pigment around the entrance. Daniel’s fascination in the symbols was broken when he looked at Pip.

She was crouched down with her arms wrapped around her knees and shivering. Daniel squatted beside her, wondering what was wrong. He looked into her face and saw fear, pain and uncertainty. He couldn’t help himself. He wrapped himself around her and just held her.

She stiffened at first but then relaxed into him a little and let him hold her. After a few minutes, he asked softly, “Are you okay, Pip?”

She sucked in a couple of deep breaths and nodded. Reluctantly, he let her go and stood. His legs had cramped a little, and he walked around to shake out the pins and needles. He heard a soft giggle. He looked at her enquiringly. Pip said, “If you need to take a crap, I’ll wait here.” Then she grinned at him.

Her sexy little smile went straight to his cock, and he had something new to worry about. ‘Fuck!’ he thought. He turned away and headed back to the cave entrance. He pulled his wand and activated the crystal. He bent over to enter. He entered slowly holding the wand as high as he could.

The cavern on the other side of the small entrance was a lot bigger. The cave floor was covered in small rocks, and it didn’t seem to have had recent occupancy. A lot of small ledges were inside the cave, and many of them had tiny little statues sitting on them.

They were all female and carved from different woods and coloured stones. Most didn’t have distinct faces or their legs below their knees. The arms crossed over their breasts and their cunnies. Daniel was fascinated and went to touch one.

“Don’t,” Pip cried out. Daniel turned and looked at her. She shook her head at him. “I don’t know why, but I don’t think you should touch them,” she said.

Daniel could see that something about the statues affected her so he didn’t them. He turned and looked around. There was a narrow split in the back of the cave, and he headed towards it. He shone the light down the crack, and it didn’t seem to go on for far, so he dropped his pack off and turned his body and shimmied down it, dragging his pack behind him.

He heard Pip follow him in. He rounded an outcrop and found it got wider after a short distance. He stopped and put his pack back on before proceeding. He noted he was going down and was careful where he put his feet.

Small round rocks, like gravel, were under his feet. They made the passage a little tricky, as it would be easy to twist an ankle or slip. He then heard the sound of moving water. He got to a spot where the drop was more significant and inched his way forward.

He felt his medallion go warm just before he heard Pips gasp and she cannoned into him. His foot slipped, and he found himself sliding. He grunted when his arse encountered the floor, but he couldn’t stop the slide.

Pip pushing from behind didn’t help, and then he felt his medallion get hotter and he realised he was free falling. He snapped out a globe spell and slapped his wand to his side. The globe hovered, a metre above his head. He got out an, ‘Oh Fuck!’ just before he hit the freezing water.

The current was strong and the water deep. Daniel felt the pack and something else pulling him down. He was glad that he had managed a gulp of air before he went under. He struggled to find up. If it weren’t for the globe, he could have ended up in any direction.

He suddenly felt himself lift and his head popped above the surface. Somehow, Pip had spun him around, and she said, “Relax, I’ve got you.”

He felt her legs lock around his hips and arse. Her arms were under his, and he seemed half out of the water. She was using some version of a floatation spell, to keep their heads above water. “Oh wow!” this much better than last time,” she said grinning at him.

Daniel couldn’t believe that she seemed to be enjoying herself. She also appeared to be steering him around obstacles, as if he was the boat. “I’m so pleased you’re enjoying yourself,” he got out.

“I love the water,” she said and steered him around the next outcrop. They were still going downwards. She wondered if she should warn Daniel of what was coming ahead.

“Oh shit!” he exclaimed. He could hear the falls ahead, but he couldn’t see them with his back to them.

“We’ll be fine, just stay as you are, we will go under but the spell should float us back up quickly,” she told him to reassure him.

“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck!” screamed Daniel as they flew out into the air. Then they started dropping, but Pip murmured something and then didn’t seem to be falling as fast. They hit the water softly, bopped under the surface and then back to the top like a tossed tennis ball.

The side wash from the falls pushed them to one side, and Pip released her grip on him. He found himself up to his waist in water and standing on a sandy bottom. The globe had survived the falls with him and lit up the area, showing the wide sandy beach in the cavern.

They struggled out of the water with their packs and flopped on the beach to catch their breath. They lay there for several minutes before Daniel realised how cold he felt. They needed to get warm, and they needed to do it fast.

He crawled onto his feet and found that Pip was exhausted from using her magic to keep them alive. He got her pack off her and pulled out her space blanket. He was bloody glad the packs had waterproofing spells on them. He wrapped Pip in the blanket as she shivered.

He searched around and found a huge pile of driftwood piled up behind an outcrop of rock. He pulled out several large pieces. He stopped when he saw the bones mingled in amongst the pieces of wood. They weren’t the first to go over the falls.

Ignoring the bones, he then collected a pile of kindling. He stacked the wood and several of the larger logs into a pile further up the beach and dropped a fire spell on it.

‘Whoomf’, up it went. It was soon burning brightly, and he dropped on another big log. He was surprised how fast the heat was being generated. He got his own pack off. He pulled out his blanket and laid it out. He stripped and pulled on a dry set of sweat pants, a pullover and dry socks.

He stuck several long sticks in the sand just away from the fire and hung up his pants, socks and coat. He dug through Pips pack and found some long pants and a pullover similar to his. He then unwrapped Pip from the blanket.

She was shivering harder, and while she protested, he got her out of her coat and shirt. He noted the band around her breasts and unwound it. She wasn’t happy, but he growled at her that it was sopping and had to come off. He got the dry pullover over her head, and she managed to get her arms in the sleeves.

He wrapped the blanket tight around her arms knowing she wasn’t going to be happy with what else he planned to do. He reached under the blanket and stripped off her ski pants. He took her knickers and socks too.

He got the dry sweat pants on her. She complained about him playing with her arse, through chattering teeth, but she didn’t mind him putting the socks on her feet.

He carried her over to the warmed up space blanket and lay her back down. He had a thin cotton blanket in his pack, and he dropped it over her, then he added the other space blanket. He piled a couple of bigger logs on the fire, hung up her clothes and then crawled in behind Pip, totally shagged.

He snuggled into her, and she let him. She was still shivering and her teeth chatting, so Daniel even put his legs between hers to give her as much of his warmth as he could.

He was surprised by how fast he dropped into sleep.

Daniel woke when her arse wiggled against his groin.

He clutched her body closer and realised his hand was wrapped around a very nice titty. It wasn’t the biggest breast that he had ever held, but it fitted very nicely into his hand with a bit left over to explore.

He rubbed his thumb across the hard little nipple and Pip gasped and stiffened, pulling her arse from his groin. Daniel grumbled. He then sighed when she rolled away from him and sat back on her haunches.

The sudden inrush of cold air didn’t cool his ardour. The sloppy pants and the pullover were not designed for sexy, but Daniel still had the shapes of a lovely titty and firm arse embedded in his brain.

Pip dragged over her pack and dug out a couple of ration bars and her water bottle. She handed one to Daniel, and he agreed that they needed food. The fire had died down but was still giving off heat. He stoked it up with more wood.

He poured water into two cups. He added the soup mix and heated it with his small wand. The food perked him up, and he looked around the cavern. “I think there is another exit back there. Do you remember if you came across anybody else in these caverns?” he asked Pip.

She shook her head and grimaced. “Not alive,” she said.

Daniel quirked an eyebrow. “What else can you remember?”

Piped frowned and looked around. “I did remember the falls,” she said. She looked frustrated as she tried to remember more.

She rubbed the side of her head and the faint scar that followed her hair line for several centimetres. “I think I got this here. I think it’s why I get a few fleeting images come to me but not full memories.”

“I’d say you got a concussion. That would make sense as to why. What about before you entered the cave?” he asked.

“No, not really. I felt as if I was brought here, that I did something wrong, but I just can’t remember,” she said with frustration.

Daniel believed her. If she had been scared and then hurt it’s a natural response of people to block out the bad memories. They finished eating and then Daniel dropped a little spell on their partially dried clothes.

They folded the spare clothes back into their packs and put the Parkas back on to ward off the chill. Daniel formed a new globe, and they walked to where he believed the next exit was.

They found a 2m square opening. “Interesting, someone got this door open, and it didn’t close again,” he commented. He placed his hand where the spell should be and found it wasn’t there. “Curiouser and curiouser,” he said.

He pulled his wand and extended it. He sent the globe ahead and peeked around the door. He then walked around it into a small room. It was conspicuously empty. He noticed there was a door in each of the side walls and they were open.

The peeked through the first open door. It led to a hallway that was at least 30m long before finished at another door but it was closed. Along the walls were more doorways. He walked in far enough to look in the first room. As he had expected, it was a sleeping cell.

“Let’s look the other way,” he said. Pip nodded and followed him. It was another hall and more sleep cells. He suspected the kitchen was at the end of one hall and the wizard’s chamber at the end of the other.

He was sure there would be nothing of value to be found. These doors had been open a very long time. Even the preservation spells were faint or non-existent. They would check them out later.

They walked over to the other blank wall. Daniel felt around the wall. He turned when Pip stepped up to a spot that was set off of centre. She placed her hand on the wall. They both heard the grate of stone on stone, and the door moved back into the new room and turned in the middle.

Daniel followed Pip into the new room.

They had located the Transportation Ring cavern.

The crystals, though not plentiful, were bright enough and large enough to power the Ring. Pip exclaimed, “Wow! I don’t remember that being here last time.”

Daniel looked at the stone lectern with the book on it beside the ring. He had never seen one, not on Harmony, Utopia or Earth. He examined the book. “Bloody Hell! Lee has been searching for this book. I wonder how I can get a copy to Harmony for her.”

The watched as the pages flipped and he read the instructions. Daniel grinned. He looked at Pip, “I think we need to make a side trip.”

She frowned at him. “I thought Storm wanted us to search for the wizard’s boxes?”

“They aren’t here. I believe that they are closer to home than Storm realises. We’ll go find them after we go visit Lee.”