thaumobabble | bewitched armor

There are plenty of things to do. Bella orders a carpet to enchant so she can commute to and from Reformist Wizards efficiently and move house. She starts combing through the castle library to find background material on her Minor Technical Issue.

Sometimes she watches Sherlock cook.

Sometimes she watches Tony forge. (Nnnnf.)

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Bella drops her frog, pulls a handful of something powdery and green out of her sleeve, and throws it at the bat things. She hits four of the flock, and those retreat into miscellaneous exits, shrieking, but the others get at her and start nibbling at bits of Bella that aren't covered by armor. Bella does her best to swat them away - none of them is bigger than size of her outstretched hand - but there's about forty. She eventually gives up on doing anything about their insistence on nibbling on her and attempts to help Sherlock out of the water, upon which exit the bat things begin to nibble Sherlock too.

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Sherlock immediately heads for the nearest frog-free area, although she has some difficulty walking without help.

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Bella insinuates herself under Sherlock's arm to serve as a crutch; she's nibbled but not in a way that impedes her movement much. "Ml-" she starts, but nope, apparently even spell words produce frogs; this one is small and pinkish-white.

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On they limp, then.

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Unless Sherlock has a better idea Bella will aim for the tunnel with the lowest ceiling, as it seems like it might be unappealing to bat-things.

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Fine by her.

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The bat-things are mostly dissuaded, except for three, which Bella eventually manages to swat.

The frogs thin out as they proceed.

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When they pass the last visible frog, Sherlock says testingly, "Frogs?"

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Frogs! She gets four of them, apparently talking about frogs yields bonus frogs. They're all very little, though, cute little yellow and brown frogs.

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She snorts.

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Bella laughs helplessly. Apparently laughter is sufficient to produce a poliwog, which she spits out unhappily.

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On they go, then.

When they have left the poliwog behind, Sherlock says firmly, "Mint."

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This produces no frogs.

"Mulaglarby mulaglarby," mutters Bella, and then she seizes Sherlock's hand and repeats herself. "Why mint?"

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"First short word I thought of that wasn't an amphibian."

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"I love you," laughs Bella weakly. "Let's - will it interfere with you being ready to fight more nasty monsters if we hold hands, I think that would make it harder for the cave to split us up again."

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"It will not interfere," says Sherlock, "but I may need to drop your hand quickly if we come upon something sufficiently unpleasant."

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"Okay." Bella takes Sherlock's hand. And as an afterthought produces a water bottle from a sleeve to rinse out her mouth; she offers it to Sherlock after she has spat frog taste onto the tunnel floor.

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She grins and does likewise. "Thank you. Much appreciated."

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"This cave," says Bella flatly, "is full of unpleasant surprises."

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"I agree."

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The next unpleasant surprise is that Tony is apparently being held by wizards who consider the best way to keep a captive princess to be "bound, gagged, suspended upside down from the ceiling, wide awake, and, for some reason, blue". Besides Tony there is one other such captive, an unremarkable-looking (except for having sprouted donkey ears) man in his thirties or so.

There are six wizards in the cave and they're huddled around a large scroll muttering to each other.

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"Hello," says Sherlock, dropping Bella's hand and stepping away from her. "I am here to unpleasantly surprise you."

The entire exterior surface of her armour catches fire. She draws her sword, and that lights up too.

She heads for the wizards.

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Bella busies herself with getting Tony down from the ceiling. This is delicate but not impossible, as she's suspended by a pulley system to allow wizards to do the same thing as necessary. When Tony has been set on the floor Bella starts on her knots.

The wizards are unpleasantly surprised.

But not for long.