Before Flash knew it, they both found themselves embroiled in the shadows of a small arched bridge that supported a walkway above it. A sharp turn later and they were in Camelot Arcade, heading towards the old wooden door of Gee Tee's Mantra Emporium. Stepping up to knock on the door, for no apparent reason Peter tried the handle before he did so. Realistically he knew it was a waste of time, as he was sure the shop had long since shut, but to his surprise, the handle turned and the door creaked open.
Turning to Flash, Peter whispered,
"I thought it would have been locked up for the night, with Gee Tee already having turned in. But it appears not."
Flash raised his eyebrows and followed his friend into the brightly lit shop. As they proceeded, a wave of unusually cold air buffeted their warm faces. Flash gently closed the door behind them, before heading into the labyrinth of tall, wooden bookcases. As they pushed on, the deafening silence was punctuated by a very peculiar humming noise, originating from somewhere at the front of the shop. Flash tapped Peter gently on the shoulder, and as Peter turned round, Flash put his finger over his lips, indicating that they should be quiet. Flash leant in towards Peter and in the quietest of whispers said,
"Something's not quite right here. I'm not sure what, but we should proceed with caution. Peter nodded, and with a sweep of his arm indicated that perhaps Flash should go first. Flash duly obliged.
Creeping stealthily towards the front of the shop, the two friends rounded the last of the tall bookcases. Out of nowhere shot a giant blur, smashing them both into one of the dust covered shelves, causing them to roll back up the aisle from which they'd both come. With the massive weight of the blur crushing his chest, Peter was pinned helplessly to the ground. Flash, not so much. His body had gone onto autopilot and his combat training was a fraction of a second from kicking in. It was only then that Flash's brilliant mind recalled that he'd heard a shout of, "DOWN!" as the speeding blur had crashed into them... odd, he thought, as he started to slide out from under the breath sapping weight on top of him. Just as it looked as though things couldn't get any weirder, three deadly thick needles of ice shot into the bookcase, behind where they'd been standing only a split second before, quivering there like frosted little arrows. The speeding blur had just saved their lives. Both Flash and Peter craned their necks at the same time, trying to get a glimpse of who, or what, had landed on them. As they did so, a thick neck full of muscle swung round above them. On it was a familiar head, with the same inane smile that Peter had come to know and love.
"Sorry about that," whispered Tank. "We've got something of a situation here," he added quietly, nodding towards the icy bolts embedded in the bookcase.
Flash smiled as Tank rolled off the two visitors, and added,
"Do tell."
As the three of them sat on the floor, backs against the shelves on the opposite side of the aisle to the ones with the ice bolts in them, Tank began to explain what had happened.
"Gee Tee and I were working our way through a set of old mantras, trying to determine what they were, if they worked and if they were worth saving. We were employing all the usual safeguards, morphic shields, phase resonators, blanket containment mantras, the lot. Well, after working our way through five or six in quick succession, we came across a most unusual one written in Inuit. I had no idea what any of it said, and although Gee Tee claimed he knew, I could sense a lot of nervousness in the old dragon, something very rare indeed. Anyway, against MY better judgement, he pressed on and cast the mantra, resulting in something akin to one of my nightmares, something that is currently residing round the corner there, near the front desk."
"Let me guess," ventured Flash. "An ice salamander?"
Tank nodded his head.
"And not just any ice salamander. I've seen them before, and yes, they can be a little bit tricky to handle. But this thing is like the queen of all ice salamanders. She's huge, and you've seen the things she's been firing at us. Gee Tee's trapped in the back of the workshop, where he fled as soon as we realised what happened. I've been out here trying to keep her occupied in the hope that the old dragon will find a way to reverse what he's done. This all started about three hours ago, and we've been doing this ever since, with no luck whatsoever."
"Three hours!" exclaimed Peter incredulously.
Flash's forehead creased deep in concentration, as he considered the sticky circumstances that they all found themselves in.
"Why not simply banish it back to where it came from?" he asked, puzzled.
"That was my thought originally," huffed Tank, looking absolutely shattered. "The problem is that the ice salamander seems to be guarding the scroll with the mantra on it, and is currently curled up atop it, making it all but impossible to banish it. I've spent nearly two hours trying to draw it away from the front desk, in the hope that Gee Tee might sneak out, get the scroll, and... waheyyy... banish it. But it's not happening. It will not leave that scroll. It's almost as if it knows what it is and where it's come from."
"That, Tank," said Peter, "is simply not possible."
Tank sighed deeply, wishing that his tired body could go home and curl up in bed.
"It's not quite as impossible as you seem to think Peter," interrupted Flash, eyes closed, leaning his head back against the dust encrusted book shelves. "In ages past, mantras that summoned creatures with a better understanding of exactly what they were, were almost commonplace. I'm talking of course about a time many, many thousands of years ago, but it did happen. What I struggle to understand is how a mantra could have lasted so long, and ended up here. Still... at this moment it's a moot point. We need to banish the ice salamander back to where it came from. If it does have any sort of understanding of what it is, the longer we wait, the harder all this is going to be."
"Uhhh, there's something else as well," whispered Tank nervously. "The shields on the building are weaker than they've ever been. Gee Tee's known this for some time, but hasn't got round to having them reenergised."
"Exactly how weak are the shields?" demanded Flash, quietly. "Weak enough for that thing to make a break for it?""
Rather sheepishly, Tank nodded his head.
"And you haven't called the King's Guard?"
Tank shook his head.
"If the King's Guard come, they'll shut the whole place down for good. This will be the end of it all. They'll do it, and Rosebloom will make sure that it stays shut," added Tank, trying desperately to hold back tears. "I know they should have been called, and I realise the danger if that thing gets out... but I just couldn't do it. If they closed this place down, it would finish him off. I thought I could distract it and together we could undo everything... oh I can't believe this is happening. What a day!"
Flash slapped Tank playfully on the shoulder.
"Well... now that the cavalry has arrived, there's nothing to worry about is there? I'll create a distraction worthy of note, and you two can get the mantra back to Gee Tee. How does that sound?"
Tank's inane smile reappeared immediately.
"That sounds great. But are you sure you can do it?"
"Do dragons pee in the air?" (And if you'd ever been hit by flying dragon pee, boy you'd know it. Not just hospitalisation, but decontamination as well.) "I'm not called Flash for nothing you know. One very important thing to remember though guys."
"What's that?" mumbled Peter.
"We must avoid those ice bolts at all costs. If one of those hits a dragon, no matter what their form, I think it would be safe to say that the only thing you'd be seeing after that is a great big lake of lava."