The Labyrinth of Worlds, part 4

Hooray, I have signal again!

Hey everyone, Tempest again. Let me catch you up on what I've learned recently.

I was in Camelot. Yup, that Camelot. With Arthur and Merlin and everything. Unfortunately it also had Terrifying Undead Skeleton Warrior Monster things, but hey, I've fought stranger. The upside of the battle was winning Arthur's trust, so Merlin didn't have to sneak around so much to try and help me, which he apparently really wanted to do! He was so nice, and he helped me make an important discovery: I can do magic here. Not much, and I kinda suck at it, but I can. Particularly protection and elemental stuff, like the powers I'm meant to have, minus Tech for obvious reasons.

So yeah, our powers work in these other worlds, but they follow the 'rules' of the world we're in.

Anyway, I explained my situation and I was told about this new 'spectral presence, a tear in the world' in the forest, and how it's 'Guarded by a horrific monster, a thing of nightmares'. Sounds fun!

3 Days of Horse riding later, we arrive at an area of the woods filled with shadows, and mysterious thorny vines. We tried to approach quietly, but one of the horses snapped a vine under it's hoof, and there was a huge, low, terrible roar, that shook the trees, and knocked us off our horses.

'It is like no creature we have ever seen!' Arthur yelled, leaping to his feet. 'Even Gaius can give us no clue as to the nature of this beast! You have shown yourself to be a pretty good fighter, and you claim to know of strange lands far away. The tear is unstable, it appears and vanishes without warning. Have you any idea what this thing of Nightmares could be?'

I looked at it. It was shadowy, covered in wisps of dark, ghostly energy. It was huge, with spikes of fur that looked like they could slice you open. It vaguely resembled a dog, but with a faint, warped stripey pattern on it's body. A long tail of Dark Smoke danced and whirled behind it, and it had a vast mane of jagged hair that threatened to consume it's face, but didn't stop it's dark, empty eyes from staring deep into our souls, making us tremble, as if it was eating away at our insides.

'I have NO clue. It looks a bit like....well, if it wasn't so spiky......if those stripes were clearer it could kinda be........what's that dark smoke stuff on it?..........it sort of resembles.........nope, no ideaaAAARGH!'

It had pounced, and I didn't quite manage to get out of the way. I'd tried to leap, but got scrathed right up my right arm, with a burning, agonising paintore through me. I fell to the floor, gasping and clutching my arm as Arthur distracted it with a few jabs of his sword. This thing was fast. Like, EXTREMELY fast. It's movements were almost a blur as Arthur danced out of reach of it's sweeping claws. Merlin ran up to me, giving my arm a quick check. 'Not deep, you'll be fine. What do we do?'

'Well,...ow..... the way I see it, if we win here, I.....I'll be able to enter this tear in reality and hopefully return to my own world.'
'Such a crazy notion, but if you say so.'
'So the way I see it......Huff, ow.......our main advantage-' Merlin offered me his hand, helping me up. '-unlike you, I don't have to hide my magic!'
'Are you crazy!? If Arthur sees you do magic, Uther will have you killed!'
'Can't kill me if I'm not here, so let's hope this works.'
'When you too are quite done being frightened girls, feel free to join in!' Arthur yelled.
I muttered sideways to Merlin. 'Remind me, Fire, Tree, Wind?'
He uttered a string of nonsense that I couldn't possibly spell right if I tried to write it here.
'Oooooooook. If I distract him with that what little power this place will let me have, reckon you could use that 'stone to life' spell the other way? Turn this thing to stone?'
'I.....I've never thought of that. Possible I suppose. It was so hard to learn though..'
'Yeah it took you all night, I remember. You're a lot further on in your learning though, aren't you?'
'How do you know it took my all-'
'MOVE!'
I shoved him to the ground as a blast of dark fire shot over our heads. 'TRY!' I yelled, getting to my feet and limping towards Arthur.'Get out of the way!'
'Is that any way to talk to your Prince?!'
'Yeah, I keep trying to explain, same COUNTRIES, different WORLDS. You're only SORT OF my Prince.'
I garbled the spell for 'Tree', and several branches from all around us whipped out, growing and stretching to grab at the monster, which roared in surprise.
'Magic! If my Father were here-'
'Yeah yeah, 'My Father will hear about this.' Don't be such a Malfoy! MOVE!'
I shouted the word for wind. Nothing happened. I tried again, I still couldn't get it right. Arthur was shouting again, but I couldn't hear him over the roaring of the monster. I finally got it right and a burst of wind thrust him away from the clearing, spluttering with rage.
I tried fire, and on the second attempt, the branches burst into flames, burning the beast and causing it to writhe in pain.
Merlin gave me the signal, just as I heard Arthur charging back. Merlin ducked back behind a tree and started chanting. Distracting Arthur, I waved my arms, making grand gestures at the monster.
'Err, ummmmm, Oh! Petrificus Totalus!'
Merlin finished his spell and the monster froze, turning to stone. There was a flash of light, and a huge wind whipped up.
'We stabalised the tear by defeating the Guardian!' I called out as the tear in reality opened up, the winds pulling at me, drawing me in.
'Are you sure?' Merlin yelled, holding up an arm defensively.
'More just hopeful than anything!'
Arthur turned to Merlin 'Where have YOU been?'
'I...uh....fell?'
'Useless, just useless.....'
'Thank you, both of you, you've been a great help. I hope we can hang out again sometime!'
Arthur looked torn, but I couldn't hear his response because the tear's pull was too strong, and I was yanked backwards into glaring whiteness.