Changing

[chryse]

"Did anything unusual happen to you recently? I mean outside of the usual odd stuff that happens around here," asked Chryse, still staring at the red shark in the mirror. "It might just be a spell on you to change your reflection...."

[Drumheller]

"Hey gang. Sorry to interrupt, but I was passing by and couldn't help but overhear your discussion." Drum walked over to get a look at the reflection in the mirror. "Hmm, that is interesting. Chryse could be right, it just might be some sort of spell or..."

"Or what?" Kara asked as she turned.

"Well, it could be some sort of spirit possession." Drum said, still staring at the shark image. "Of course, I've never heard of any kind of animal spirit possessing someone before. Have you had any physical effect from this, other than the reflection?"

"No, none that I've noticed." Kara replied.

"Let me check something." Drum said, and began digging in his faerie bag. After a few moments he pulled out an ancient looking book, and started leafing through the pages. "There is a spell I could try."

"Whoa! Hold on there!" Kara said as Drum prepared to cast his spell. "I've had some bad experiences with your magic before if you'll recall."

Drum gave her his best wounded expression. "Come on now, I told you guys that I've got all the bugs work out of my magic. All that training I went through while I was gone paid off."

"I don't know...."

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." Drum said as he began his spell.

"Besides, what could go wrong?"

[RagnarRB]

Was it just Drum's imagination or did several of the gang not only glare the obvious answer at him but also started edging away or looking for cover?

Not to be detered Drum began to chant....

[KaraS]

Drum began to chant.

First the air around Kara began to glow, then it began moving in a circle, slowly at first but gaining speed. Soon, Kara was standing at the center of a small whirling tornado. The tornado began spitting out lightning.

"Woah!" Ragnar said, dodging a small bolt that had come right for him.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Kay asked.

"Of course." Drum said. But he really didn't look so sure.

The tornado got bigger and whirled faster and became more opaque. Suddenly, with a loud thunderclap and a shockwave that threw everybody off their feet, it disapated. Where Kara had stood, a bright red shark hovered. The shark steamed faintly, and seemed to ripple as if seen through great heat.

The shark grinned at them, then darted off down the hallway at a great rate of speed.

"Hey, come back here!" Ragnar said, jumping to his feet and racing after it.

Drum, Chryse and Kay followed close behind.

Unnoticed, on the other side of the mirror, Kara sighed and slid slowly down to sit on the ground.

"Great. What do I do NOW?"

[Kayde]

Running after the shark, Kay and Chryse looked at Drum. He looked like he was trying to figure out just what happened. He just knew he had done the spell correctly. Ragnar almost caught the shark, and then it just smiled back at him and sped up.

"We have to catch it", Chryse said, almost as out of breath as the others. It has the answer to what is going on with Kara."

Kara wondered how long it would be before they realized that she was in the mirror, and would someone PLEASE come help her get out?

[KaraS]

Kara pounded on the glass from the other side of the mirror.

"HELP!"

But could anybody even see her from the other side if the shark wasn't there to make her reflection appear?

Meanwhile, the shark zipped down the corridors of the new mansion with the Scoobies in hot persuit. With all the yelling and clanking of Ragnar's chainmail and the crashes as people knocked into and knocked over various pieces of furniture, it was inevitable that the other Scoobs would be attracted by the noise...

[RagnarRB]

Ragnar made a diving lunge....and missed. The metalic belly flop echoed down the hall.

He could have swore the shark returned just long enough to pat him on the head with a fin and assail him with lots of sharp teeth and fish breath.

It slipped away again.

[Sandworm]

Sandworm walked up.
He realised he seemed to be doing a lot of this lately.
"How are you guys?" he asked, helping Ragnar up.
"What's going on?"

[RagnarRB]

Ragnar grunted.

"That good, really?"Sandworm opined.

[Emram]

Emram stood in his room, looking in the mirror to ensure that his chain mail shirt was straight. He brushed a small speck of dirt from the front of his white trimmed, purple surcoat, and buckled on his sword belt. Just then, he saw, super-imposed over his reflection, an image of Kara! She appeared to be banging on the surface of his mirror with her fists. He reached out gingerly, and leapt back, startled, when his fingers went through the surface! He reached out again, and found that he could step through the mirror entirely! He emerged on the other side to find Kara staring at him.

"How did - what - who?" she sputtered. "How did you get on this side of the mirror?"

"I have no idea," he replied, which was true. Magic wasn't his thing, although, being a Knight, he did have a certain natural affinity for magical things. "All I know is, I was standing in front of my mirror, and then you appeared. I went through the mirror, and here I am." He looked around. "Wherever here is," he added. The landscape around them almost seemed to be going out of it's way to avoid description. It was gloomy, and it was impossible to see very far, but it wasn't really all that dark. All there was to see was the mirror, which looked like a window into Scoob Castle.

[Kayde]

Emram and Kara found that if they took a few steps in any given direction, they could appear at the mirror's of the other rooms in the mansion. The problem was, they couldn't get anyone's attention. Every time they saw someone in one of the mirrors, the person was just turning away, or changed their mind and never looked into it.

[Drumheller]

Emram and Kara wandered from mirror to mirror, still trying to get someone's attention. Finally they found the huge full length mirror in Drum's room (Oh, the vanity of wizards!).

Louie lay curled up, sleeping in front of the mirror. Kara tapped on the glass to get his attention. Louie looked up at the sound, and stared unblinking at the two in the mirror.

"Louie!" Kara yelled, unsure if she could be heard through the mirror. "You've got to find someone to get us out of here!"

For several seconds, Louie just stared at them. Then he walked to the mirror and touched the image with a little lizard paw.

"Get some help!" Kara yelled and pounded her fist on the glass for emphasis.

Louie stared for a couple more seconds. Finally he blinked, then turned and ran like a shot out of the room.

[Sandworm]

Louie return a few moments later. On Sandworm's shoulder, biting his ear whenever he went in the wrong direction.
"Hey stop that"
Sandworm stepped into Drum's room and looked around.
Then he saw Kara and Emram in the mirror.
"Hmm, what are you guys doing in there?" he asked.
They pounded noiselessly on the glass.
"Great. Why did I never get around to learning to lip-read?"
Sandworm thought for a moment.
"OK, I'll go get someone who can help - maybe drum has some ideas, or Kae... I'll go find someone."

[Sandworm]

Louie returned a few moments later. With Sandworm. He was giving him a nudge whenever he went in the wrong direction.
"Hey! stop that!"
Sandworm stepped into Drum's room and looked around.
Then he saw Kara and Emram in the mirror.
"Hmm, what are you guys doing in there?" he asked.
They pounded noiselessly on the glass.
"Great. Why did I never get around to learning to lip-read?"
Sandworm thought for a moment.
"OK, I'll go get someone who can help - maybe drum has some ideas, or Kae... I'll go find someone."
So he ran off.
and as he walked out of the door, he ran into someone - Ragnar. He helped the Viking up, saying, "Sorry, I should look where I'm going." Then he noticed Ragnar was being guided to the room in the same way he had been - well, that lizard would bring someone with magical experience in this kind of thing to him soon enough.

[Emram]

Eventually, the entire gang was assembled in Drum's room, rubbing their ears - Louie was a fairly direct communicator - staring at Kara and Emram in the mirror.

"How did Emram get through there?" Rae wondered. "Kara swapped with the shark, but what did Emram swap with?"

Drum wrote the question on a piece of paper, and held it up to the mirror.

Emram shrugged, and mouthed "nothing."

"Maybe he can come back through, then?" Ragnar suggested.

"You may be right," Rae answered. She wrote down the suggestion, and Emram, after slapping himself on the forehead, reached out his hand. It appeared on the other side, followed by his arm, shoulder and head, but then he stopped.

"Oh, great," he grumbled.

"Can you go back?" Drum asked. Emram tried to move, and found that he was perfectly able to move freely back and forth, but no further than halfway through the mirror.

"What about Kara?" She tried, but the mirrir was solid and unyielding.

Drum gave Emram a sheaf of paper and a pencil.

"You're probably best to stay with Kara, until we can work out a way to get you both out of there," he said. Emram nodded, and slipped back through.

**********************************************

"So how come you can get through?" Kara asked. "I was swapped with the shark, but you just walked straight through the mirror."

"I don't know," Emram replied. "I'm a Knight, though, and I've had my fair shair of enchantments - maybe they've made me a little bit magical?"